Climate Change and Lifestyles Guidebook - UNEP

youth Xchange 

C l i m a t e C h a n g e a n d L i f e s t y l e s G u i d e b o o k

Published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 7, 

place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France and the United Nations Environment Programme 

(UNEP), United Nations Avenue, Gigiri, PO Box 30552, 00100 Nairobi, Kenya. 

© UNESCO and UNEP 2011 

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imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO and UNEP concerning the 

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frontiers or boundaries. 

The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this book 

and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and UNEP and 

do not commit the Organizations. 

This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part and in any form for educational or nonprofit 

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No use of this publication may be made for resale or for any other commercial purpose whatsoever 

without prior permission in writing from UNESCO and UNEP. 

A United Nations Publications. ISBN 978-92-807-3211-5 

This guidebook is printed on 100% recycled paper 

Y o u t h X c h a n g e - C l i m a t e c h a n g e a n d l i f e s t y l e s

w w w . y o u t h x c h a n g e . n e t 

youth 

X 

Guidebook Series 

change 

Climate Change 

and Lifestyles 

United 

Nations 

Environment 

Programme 


Acknowledgements 

UNEP and UNESCO gratefully acknowledge the time and effort spent by those involved in producing 

and commenting on the YouthXchange Guidebook on Climate Change and Lifestyles. 

This publication was developed under the supervision of the UNEP Division of Technology, Industry 

and Economics (DTIE) and the UNESCO Division of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development, 

and authored by Adam Cade (Susted Sustainability Education Consultancy, UK) and Rob Bowden 

(Lifeworlds Learning, UK). The publication was designed by Rob Bowden (Lifeworlds Learning, UK). 

The work was coordinated by Khairoon Abbas, UNEP DTIE, under the supervision of Adriana Zacarias 

Farah, Programme Officer at UNEP DTIE, and Fabienne Pierre, Associate Programme Officer at UNEP 

DTIE, as well as Julia Heiss, Programme Specialist, and Bernard Combes, Information Officer, at 

UNESCO’s Division of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development. Special thanks to UNEP’s 

Kaveh Zahedi, Seraphine Haeussling, Pierre de Jouvancourt and Sophie Bonnard for their advice 

and editing assistance, specifically for the climate change sections. Our warm thanks to the Swedish 

Ministry of the Environment and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for supporting the realization 

of this project. 

The YouthXchange Guidebook on Climate Change and Lifestyles, which focuses on the challenges, 

opportunities and good practices of climate change, is the first in a series of thematic guidebooks. 

This series is produced for young people and people working with young people, educators, teachers, 

trainers and youth leaders around the world. 

Since its launch in 2001, the YouthXchange Initiative has been working with national partners in 45 

countries to adapt and translate the YouthXchange training kit on responsible consumption. Now 

translated into more than 20 languages and distributed worldwide through partnerships with national 

governments and local organizations, the guidebook has reached more than 400,000 young people 

worldwide. 

For more information on the YouthXchange Initiative: www.youthxchange.net 


Foreword 

Every day, young people are exposed to numerous images and messages that promote models of 

unbridled consumption as the key to happy and fulfilling lives. In reality, however, the impacts of 

this unsustainable consumption are extremely harmful, contributing to climate change and other 

environmental challenges, such as rising sea levels, water shortages and food insecurity. 

The world’s youth will have a significant role to play if we are to bring about the widespread behavioural 

change needed to shift towards more sustainable lifestyles and consumption habits. It is important for 

young people to understand that behind over-consumption lies increased exploitation of resources, 

rising poverty, widening inequalities and persistent conflicts, all of which will worsen with climate 

change and eventually will minimize their opportunities for a better and sustainable future. The poorest 

of the poor, those who cannot consume enough to meet their basic needs, are the worst hit by climate 

change. Most of these are young people under 24, who make up nearly half of the world’s population, 

with most living in developing countries. 

But young people are determined, creative and have high hopes. They have the energy and willpower 

to help make their communities and the world better places and are constantly looking for the best 

opportunities for their future. Many of them are concerned about climate change and are ready to take 

action and to look for ideas and guidance on how to change and adapt their lifestyles towards more 

sustainable ones. Information and education are essential in empowering them and helping them 

to better understand not only the science of climate change and what is at stake, but also the way 

it relates to their daily lives and local environments, as well as to the choices they make, especially 

as consumers. Most young people have already heard about climate change, but many of them still 

perceive it as an abstract threat, too complex and too big while in fact its consequences are concrete, 

like the solutions and behaviours that can be developed to adapt to or mitigate them. 

UNEP and UNESCO’s YouthXchange Guidebook on Climate Change and Lifestyles aims to answer the 

questions that young people aged from 15 to 24 may have, and to inspire them in their daily lives. 

It explores the interrelationship between climate change and lifestyles through a scientific, political, 

economic, social, ethical and cultural angle and identifies actions young people might take towards 

more sustainable lifestyles. It channels the relevant information related to climate change in a less 

abstract and frightening manner, helping young people develop alternate visions and set goals towards 

improving their future. This guidebook provides information, case studies and useful tips around topics 

relevant to young people and their everyday lives, such as food and drink, travel and transport, leisure 

and entertainment. 

At a time when the Earth’s resources are being depleted faster than they can be replenished, adopting 

and promoting more sustainable ways of living that are in harmony with our communities and nature 

has never been more crucial. This guidebook supports young people to become advocates and agents 

of change for sustainable lifestyles in their respective communities around the world. 

Ms Sylvie Lemmet 

Director 

Division of Technology, Industry and Economics 

UNEP 

Mr Qian Tang 

Assistant Director-General 

for Education, 

UNESCO 



Contents 

YXC Guidebook Series (p.6) 

1 Aims of the YouthXchange Guidebook on Climate 10 

Change and Lifestyles. The Guidebook. The 

challenges. 

Leisure and entertainment (p.40) 

Having fun. Organizing low carbon events. Low 

carbon sports. Climate-friendly arts. 

2 

Learning for change (p.8) 

Education for sustainable development. ESD, 

climate change and lifestyles. 

11 

Shopping for stuff (p.42) 

Ethical shopping. Zero waste. Embedded water. 

Alternatives to buying new. Clothes and textiles. 

Packaging. Labels. 

3 

Changing climates (p.10) 

Climate and weather. Global temperatures. 

Human causes. Maintaining ecosystems. Different 

scenarios. An invisible threat. 

12 

Money and jobs (p.46) 

Money and banks. Banking alternatives. Cost 

of climate change. Buy now, pay later culture. 

Green jobs. 

4 

Changing effects and impacts (p.14) 

Effect on the planet. Ecosystems. Impacts on 

people. Developed, Emerging and Developing 

countries. Young people. Indigenous youth. Girls 

and young women. Islanders. The good news. 

13 

Connecting with others (p.48) 

Communicating climate change. Digital 

communication. Electronic waste. Electronic 

emissions. Social networks. Communicating with 

decision-makers. 

5 

Lifestyle choices (p.20) 

Lifestyles. A world of choice? Ecological and 

carbon footprints. Advertising. 

14 

Taking action (p.52) 

Choice of actions. Different impacts. Group action. 

Campaigning. 

6 

Good life (p.24) 

Consumer culture. Wellbeing and happiness. 

Consuming the Earth. Low carbon lifestyles. 

Pessimism. 

15 

Online resources (p.56) 

Websites and videos. 

7 

Food (p.28) 

A world of opposites. Food miles. Farm animals. 

Virtual water. Local food. Meat-free meals. 

Organic food. 

16 

Useful terms (p.59) 

8 

Energy control (p.32) 

Energy rules. Fossil fuels. Energy choices. 

Renewable energy. Personal control. Controlling 

temperature. Heating water. Controlling light and 

appliances. 

17 

About YXC (p.61) 

9 

Travel and transport (p.36) 

A world on the move. Transport emissions. Making 

better choices. Urban public transport. To fly or 

not? Touring the planet. 

© Shutterstock 


1. YXC Guidebook Series 

Climate Change and Lifestyles is the first in a series of guidebooks supporting the 

UNESCO/ UNEP YouthXchange (YXC) Initiative, which was created in 2001 to promote 

sustainable lifestyles among youth (15-24 years) through education, dialogue, 

awareness raising and capacity building. The series is being produced for young 

people and people working with youth, such as educators, teachers, trainers and 

youth leaders in both developed and developing countries. 

Almost half of the world’s population is under the 

age of 25, and nearly 90 per cent of them live in 

developing countries. Youth is a critical stakeholder 

in the global economy and will be the main actor 

and motor for change in the near future. Thus, 

the energy, motivation and creativity of youth are 

essential assets to stimulating change. 

Aims of the YXC Guidebook on Climate 

Change and Lifestyles: 

• Explore the links between lifestyles 

and climate change; 

• Help young people 

consider the actions they 

should take towards more 

sustainable lifestyles; 

• Support courses 

and actions that 

promote greater 

understanding of 

climate change and 

lifestyles among 

youth. 

The guidebook: 

• Considers the causes and effects of climate 

change and its human impacts and responses, 

while connecting them to lifestyle choices 

and the technical and social infrastructures of 

a society; 

• Provides scientific, political, economic, 

social, ethical and cultural perspectives on 

climate change; 

• Explains complex issues in accessible 

language supported by facts, graphics, 

images, examples and web links; 

• Develops the critical skills young people 

need to make personal choices to address 

the challenges of climate change. 

“I am convinced that climate change, and what we 

do about it, will define us, our era, and ultimately 

the global legacy we leave for future generations. 

We hold the future in our hands. Together, we must 

ensure that our grand children will not have to ask 

why we failed to do the right thing, and let them 

suffer the consequences.” 

(Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations) 

The YouthXchange Guidebook on 

Climate Change and Lifestyles is 

downloadable from 

www.youthxchange.net 

And on the UNEP and UNESCO 

websites at www.unep.org and 

www.unesco.org 

Flickr: HikingArtist.com 

6 


The challenges 

Young people have immense power to determine 

the future of our planet. They can be catalysts for 

change, using their power as citizens, consumers, 

campaigners and change-makers to champion 

alternative ways of living. From across the world, 

many young people are finding solutions to the 

challenges of climate change. 

YXC Guidebook Series 

A growing number of young people around the 

world are major consumers of clothes, food, 

gadgets, communication devices, travel and 

entertainment. Advertising and peer pressure 

encourage young people into consumption patterns 

that are most often unsustainable and carried, 

often subconsciously, into adult life. This trend 

is driven by globalization with increased media, 

travel, communications and trade influencing ever 

greater numbers of young people. 

For young people in developed and developing 

countries, understanding the relationship between 

climate change and lifestyles can be a challenge. 

This challenge needs to be addressed so that 

positive changes in lifestyles can happen and 

our negative impact on the environment can be 

reduced. 

For some young people, however, these 

changes are already happening, either forced 

on them directly through changes in their local 

communities, or through the influence of friends 

and the media. 

“The over-arching advantage of youth is an 

undeniable optimism that shouts: ‘This will work, 

because it has to, because I am going to live through 

it. We can feel the momentum: the energy of youth 

is shifting the environmental movement faster than 

any other force. This movement has a life of its own, 

with all arrows pointing forward. The best part is 

that we’re doing it by and for ourselves.” 

(Zoe Caron, Blogger on Itsgettinghotinhere) 

Many young people are aware of the climate 

related challenges as one of the defining issues 

of their lives and futures. However, others are not 

because climate change remains largely abstract 

or irrelevant for them. 

• How can we link lifestyles and climate 

change and take action together? 

• How can we hear the views and see 

examples of other young people who are 

directly affected? 

This Guidebook is designed to answer these 

questions. It provides a guide to the challenges 

facing young people about their lifestyle choices 

in response to climate change. 

It empowers young people to critically engage 

with the complexities of climate change, to form 

their own views, take action and implement their 

own initiatives. 

The guide has been written to provide background 

information on climate change and lifestyles, 

examples of causes, effects and solutions from 

around the world, and suggested starting points 

for engagement and action by young people. 

Jolanta Uktveryte 

Y o u t h X c h a n g e - C l i m a t e c h a n g e a n d l i f e s t y l e s 7

2. Learning for change 

Education is vital in helping young people respond to the challenges of climate 

change, but what should this education look like? How will young people 

learn? 

Education for sustainable development 

Education for sustainable development (ESD) 

provides a framework that can help us understand 

and respond to the challenges of climate change. 

ESD goes beyond the gathering and storing of 

knowledge by encouraging learners to think 

critically and develop values such as respect for 

the environment and other people. 

“ESD is not education about environment or 

sustainable development, but rather education for 

sustainable development that includes learning about 

values, human rights, good governance, economics 

and culture.” 

(Two concepts One goal – Education for international 

understanding and Education for sustainable development) 

ESD demands that we look at learning in a new 

way. It views learning as a lifelong process taking 

place in various settings. It should transform 

societies so they become more sustainable and 

just. 

This approach to learning is essential for an issue 

as complex as climate change where there are 

many perspectives, and where actions in one 

location can have an impact on distant people 

and places. Skills such as comparing evidence, 

listening to different perspectives, understanding 

connections and making judgements are essential 

for young people to make informed choices, reach 

consensus, and collaborate with others to make 

lifestyles more sustainable. 

This approach to education throughout life is 

based on UNESCO’s Five Pillars of Learning: 

Learning to know is about having a broad 

general knowledge and in depth understanding 

of a small number of subjects. 

Learning to do is about having a main occupation 

but being skilled to deal with different situations 

and to work in teams. 

Learning to live together is about understanding 

other people and our interdependence. 

Learning to be is about personal development 

to make better choices and become more 

responsible. 

Learning to transform oneself and society 

is about individuals working separately and 

together to change the world. This means 

gaining the knowledge, values and skills needed 

for transforming attitudes and lifestyles. 

UNESCO, Five Pillars of Learning 

Flickr: CIMMYT 

“My point is simply that education is no guarantee 

of decency, prudence, or wisdom. More of the same 

kind of education will only compound our problems. 

This is not an argument for ignorance, but rather 

a statement that the worth of education must now 

be measured against the standards of decency and 

human survival - the issues now looming so large 

before us. It is not education that will save us, but 

education of a certain kind.” 

(David Orr, Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics) 

8 


Learning for change 

Quality ESD is about: 

• learning to ask critical questions 

• learning to clarify one’s own values 

• learning to envision more positive and 

sustainable futures 

• learning to think systemically 

• learning to respond through applied learning 

• learning to explore the evidence behind both 

tradition and innovation. 

(Based on Education for Sustainable Development: An 

Expert Review of Processes and Learning, UNESCO) 

ESD, climate change and lifestyles 

ESD is now being used to address current 

challenges such as climate change. The UNESCO 

Climate Change Education for Sustainable 

Development programme for example, uses ESD 

to help people understand the impacts of climate 

change and to increase climate literacy among 

young people. 

Learning for change towards a more sustainable 

lifestyle can be summarized in terms of key 

understanding, key skills and key attitudes. ESD 

is a form of education that helps to meet: 

Key understanding Key skills Key attitudes 

• The interdependent nature of our 

society and life on our planet; 

• The limited carrying capacity of 

our planet; 

• The value of biological, social and 

cultural diversity in maintaining 

the wellbeing of our planet and 

our society; 

• The role of rights and 

responsibilities in a sustainable 

society; 

• The role of equity and justice in a 

sustainable society; 

• The presence of risks and the 

need for precaution in making 

decisions about our planet and 

our society. 

• To understand the relationships 

and connections between issues 

in order to make decisions and 

solve problems in a joined-up 

way; 

• To enable co-operation and 

collective decisions even where 

views and power may not be 

distributed evenly; 

• To think critically about problems, 

issues and situations and to 

shift thinking from how to make 

things less unsustainable, to 

the kind of systems and lifestyles 

needed to achieve sustainability. 

• Confidence to take actions and 

believe they will make a positive 

difference; 

• Appreciation that individual 

behaviour must be balanced by 

our responsibilities as members 

of a wider society; 

• Seeing humanity as part of a 

natural world with limits and 

living in harmony with it as a 

resource for human 

development; 

• Respect for the biological, social 

and cultural diversity that is 

fundamental to our world; 

• Caring for self, for others, for 

living things, and for our planet. 

(From: The Sustainable Development Education Network’s Framework for the introduction of Education for Sustainable 

Development) 

Jolanta Uktveryte 

îCase study 

The Global University Partnership on 

Environment and Sustainability (GUPES) aims 

to promote the infusion of environment and 

sustainability concerns into teaching, research, 

community engagement and management of 

universities and other tertiary institutions. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Look at the wide range of downloadable 

teaching and learning resources that are listed 

in Section 15: Online resources. Try using and 

adapting some of the activities with small groups 

of young people. 

Y o u t h X c h a n g e - C l i m a t e c h a n g e a n d l i f e s t y l e s 

9

3. Changing climates 

What is the difference between weather and climate? Why is the climate 

changing? What human activities affect climate change? What does our future 

look like? 

Climate and weather 

Climate and weather have one difference. Weather 

measures the conditions of the atmosphere, 

through temperature, humidity, wind and 

precipitation, over a short period of time (day, 

week and month). Climate is the average weather 

for a particular region and time period, usually 

taken over 30 years. The climate system is very 

complex and studying it does not only mean 

looking at what is going on in the atmosphere but 

also in the ground, oceans, glaciers and so forth. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Warning signs 

According to major climate research centres 

around the world, the 10 hottest years on 

record have all occurred since 1998. 

Sea levels have risen in a way consistent with 

the warming – since 1961 at an average of 1.8 

millimetres per year, and since 1993 at 3.1 

millimetres per year. 

(UN Global Environmental Alert Service, April 2011) 

Global temperatures 

Warming of the climate is certain. Air and ocean 

temperatures are increasing, snow and ice is 

melting, and the sea level is rising. There are 

many examples that illustrate the striking changes 

that are already taking place because of climate 

change. 

The expansion of water as it warms, the melting 

of glaciers, ice caps and the polar ice sheets 

and the runoff water from terrestrial reservoirs 

are all contributing to sea level rise. The Arctic 

Ocean, for example, had the least ice of any year 

on record in 2007, followed by 2008 and 2009. 

The likelihood of certain weather events is also 

increasing. Between 1900 and 2005, rainfall has 

increased significantly in the Americas, northern 

Europe and parts of Asia, but decreased in 

southern Africa and southern Asia. 


10 



There are several factors that can influence the 

climate, such as changes in the Earth’s orbit 

around the sun, volcanic eruptions, and natural 

processes within the climate system (i.e. changes 

in ocean circulation). However, the climate change 

we are experiencing today is very likely (greater 

than 90 percent chance) due to human activities. 

Changing climates 

Human causes 

Statistics show that GHG emissions started to rise 

significantly in the 1800s due to the Industrial 

Revolution and the resulting increased production 

and consumption, as well as changes in land use. 

GHG emissions linked to human activities have 

accelerated dramatically in recent decades, with 

an increase of 70 per cent between 1970 and 2004 

alone. Carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil 

fuels is the largest single source of greenhouse 

gas emissions from human activities. The supply 

and use of fossil fuels accounts for about 80 

percent of mankind’s CO 2 

emissions. The fourth 

assessment report of the Intergovernmental 

Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading 

international body for the assessment of climate 

change, shows a strong correlation between the 

rise of anthropogenic (human-induced) GHG 

emissions in the atmosphere and the increase in 

average global temperature. 

The atmosphere is made up of gases that act like 

a blanket wrapped around the planet. This blanket 

is the Earth’s own natural way of regulating its 

temperature. This mix of gases allows some 

of the sun’s radiation to reach the surface. But 

it also partially blocks the escape of long wave 

radiation, in the form of heat, back into space. This 

heat trapping function is called the greenhouse 

effect. It keeps the Earth’s surface in a suitable 

temperature range to sustain life as we know it. 

After water vapour, the most important greenhouse 

gases (GHG) are carbon dioxide (CO 2 

), methane, 

and ozone. If we did not have these gases, the 

planet would be 33°C colder than it is today, 

making it too cold for our survival. Most of the 

increase in global average temperatures is very 

likely due to the increase in human-induced 

greenhouse gases. 

Most of these additional greenhouse gases come 

from burning fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, 

and oil to power our cars, factories, power plants, 

homes, offices, and schools. 

Maintaining ecosystems 

Our ecosystems absorb and store CO 2 

in plants, 

soil and oceans. They are known as carbon 

sinks and play a major role in the carbon cycle. 

Forests are the green lungs of the world storing 

huge amounts of carbon in the trees and in the 

soil. However, 13 million hectares of forests were 

converted to other uses or lost through natural 

causes each year between 2000 and 2010, an 

area roughly the size of Greece. Fewer forests 

mean fewer trees to absorb CO 2 

. In addition, when 

forests are burnt for farming or development, 

most of the carbon in the trees is released back 

into the atmosphere. Thus, fewer forests often 

mean more CO 2 

is emitted into the atmosphere 

and less can be naturally removed by it. This 

thickens the blanket even more. 




ÀIn Numbers 

Sources of climate change 

Major contributors to global GHG 

emissions are: 

Electricity and heat 25% 

Industry 21% 

Forestry and land use change 18% 

Agriculture 15% 

Transport 13% 

Buildings 15% 

Waste and waste water 4% 

All these sectors consume energy from some 

of the world’s top global emissions sources, 

such as CO 2 

from the burning of coal (27%), oil 

(24%), and gas (13%). 

CO 2 

also comes from land-use change (9%), 

cement manufacture (4%). 

Methane and nitrous oxide comes from 

agriculture (14%), fossil fuels (5%), and waste 

(3%). 

(UNEP Grid-Arendal climate change graphics) 

Different Scenarios 

The international community has committed to 

reduce GHG emissions, but at the current level of 

international commitment, global GHG emissions 

are expected to continue to grow, causing further 

warming, over the next few decades. However, 

how much future temperature will increase is 

uncertain because we cannot predict the rate and 

intensity of future human activities and lifestyles 

that will produce GHGs, and also because of the 

complexity of the climate system. 

The IPCC established several scenarios for GHG 

emissions and projections of surface temperatures 

from 2000 to 2100 compared to 1980–99 levels. 

These give an idea of the anticipated changes. 

The best case scenario is where the global mean 

temperature would rise by 1.8°C. This scenario 

considers a world with a global population that 

peaks in mid-century and declines thereafter, 

but with rapid change toward a service and 

information economy. It describes reductions in 

consumption and the introduction of clean and 

resource-efficient technologies. The emphasis 

is on global solutions to sustainability, including 

improved equity, but without additional climate 

initiatives. 

In the worst case scenario, the global mean 

temperature would rise by 4°C by the end of 

the century. This scenario is based on very rapid 

economic growth, a population that peaks in 

mid-century and declines thereafter, and the 

rapid introduction of new and more efficient 

technologies but still based on fossil fuels. Some 

scientists argue that because of increasing GHG 

emissions, we are actually on the road to the 

worst case scenario. 

Computer models suggest that these temperature 

increases will not be evenly distributed around 

the Earth. Land areas will warm more than oceans 

partly due to water’s ability to store heat. High 

latitudes will warm more than low latitudes partly 

due to positive feedback effects from melting 

ice. Most of North America, all of Africa, Europe, 

northern and central Asia, and most of Central 

and South America are likely to warm more than 

the global average. The warming will be close 

to the global average in south Asia, Australia 

and New Zealand, and southern South America. 

The warming will differ by season, with winters 

warming more than summers in most areas. 


12 


“Even if we could limit global average temperature 

increase to between 2 - 2.4°C above pre-industrial 

levels at equilibrium, some impacts would be 

unavoidable and global average sea-level rise on 

account of thermal expansion alone would lie 

between 0.4 - 1.4 metres. To this we should add the 

contribution to sea-level rise from melting of ice 

across the globe.” 

(Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC) 

Global awareness and concern regarding climate 

change has been increasing since the mideighties 

and since the IPCC had produced its First 

Assessment Report on Climate Change (1990). The 

first Earth Summit saw the establishment of the 

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate 

Change (UNFCCC), an international treaty that 

supports intergovernmental negotiating process 

among countries (called Parties) with a view to 

limit dangerous anthropogenic interference with 

the Earth’s climate. The Kyoto Protocol to the 

UNFCCC sets an overall GHG emission reduction 

target for Annex I countries (industrialized 

countries and countries in transition) of 5.2 per 

cent compared to 1990 emission levels to be 

achieved by 2012. The Protocol entered into 

force on 16 February 2005. As of April 2010, 191 

states have signed and ratified the protocol. 


‹ 

Get Active! 

To help address the scepticism surrounding 

climate change, its causes and effects, discuss 

in groups how to reply to the following false 

statements: 

• There is no absolute evidence for climate 

change. 

• The recent weather shows no signs of global 

warming. 

• The Earth will adjust to cope with the effects 

of climate change. 

• Scientists keep changing their mind about the 

main effects and impacts of climate change. 

An invisible threat 

Scientists are looking for ways to help the media, 

the public and policy makers better understand 

climate change, its effects and impacts. Some 

people are sceptical that climate change is 

happening at all because in the last few years, 

some parts of the world have experienced harsh 

winters, with heavy snowfall and unusually low 

temperatures. So, many ask how can the Earth 

be getting warmer, when we are seeing such cold 

winters. Firstly, the IPPC’s Fourth Assessment 

Report identified a 100 year continuous warming 

trend (1906–2005) of 0.74°C and projects 

further warming in the order of 1.1 to 6.4°C by 

the end of this century. Secondly, climate change 

goes along with increased severity and frequency 

of extreme weather events like heat waves, cold 

waves, storms, floods and droughts. 

There is still widespread doubt about the 

urgency to act on climate change and about the 

effectiveness of individual actions and choices. 

For many, climate change is abstract in terms of 

time, scale and impacts. It is often perceived as 

a future problem. For some people, the global 

causes and science behind climate change may 

be difficult to understand and to relate to their 

local experiences. Many people are finding it hard 

to judge the impacts of their actions because they 

cannot see and relate to the effects or the causes 

of climate change. Risks are often perceived in 

terms of immediate, obvious and simple threats. 



4. Changing effects and impacts 

What are the effects of climate change on the planet and ecosystems? How 

does climate change impact different people around the world? Is everyone 

affected the same way? 

Climate change effects 

The effects of climate change are global in 

scope and unprecedented in scale, with some 

of them already being observed. They include 

more frequent and extreme weather patterns, 

changes in plant growth affecting agriculture 

and food production, loss of plant and animal 

species unable to adapt or migrate to changing 

conditions, changes in the spread of infectious 

diseases in terms of the rate and the expansion 

of ranges, changes in the flow of ocean currents, 

and changes in seasons. 

These effects will have severe impacts on coastal 

communities and cities, our food and water 

supplies, marine and freshwater ecosystems, 

forests, high mountain environments, and far 

more. Climate change is expected to intensify 

throughout this century with significant 

implications for people and the planet. So, to 

avoid the unmanageable and to manage the 

unavoidable, there is an urgent need to adopt 

more sustainable lifestyles and economies with 

lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 

Effects on the planet 

The observed 0.74°C temperature increase 

(1906-2005) has already strong impacts on our 

natural environment. These changes are affecting 

the whole world, from low-lying islands to the 

polar regions. Local effects can be very different 

in different parts of the world, and these affect 

natural systems in different ways. 

For example, today, 25 per cent of GHG 

emissions due to human activities are absorbed 

by oceans that function as carbon sinks. When 

CO 2 

is absorbed by seawater, chemical changes 

occur in sea water, reducing both its pH and the 

concentration of carbonate ions, a process known 

as ocean acidification. This phenomenon affects 

corals, causing their bleaching and it could lead to 

the degradation of entire marine ecosystems that 

depend on them. 

© UNESCO 

14 


Ecosystems 

Changing effects and impacts 

Changing conditions have consequences on 

ecosystems such as coral reefs, rainforests, 

glaciers, wetlands and oceans. A 1-2°C increase 

in global temperature poses major risks to 

many unique and threatened systems, including 

biodiversity hotspots - the richest and most 

threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life on 

Earth. Scientists predict that 20 to 30 per cent of 

species are at risk of extinction if global average 

warming exceeds 1.5-2.5°C. This is because, 

as temperatures rise, environments change too 

quickly for the species to either adapt or migrate 

to somewhere more suitable for them. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Look at an ecosystem in your own area. 

Describe the ecosystem. 

What are the potential impacts on this ecosystem 

that might result if temperatures increased and 

rainfall decreased? 

îCase study 

The film 6 Billion Others – Climate Voices is 

a selection of 600 interviews from 17 countries. 

It features testimonials from people around 

the world who are witnessing change in their 

daily lives, as a result of climate change. 

(www.6billionothers.org) 

Small, slow changes in a natural system can 

quickly become big, quick changes when they 

reach a tipping point. Tipping points are critical 

thresholds, beyond which natural systems are not 

able to recover from further disturbance. Major 

climate system tipping elements include Arctic 

sea-ice loss, melting of Greenland ice sheet, 

dieback of the Amazon rainforest and Sahara 

greening. 

îCase study 

With aerial footage from 54 countries, the 

film HOME shows how the Earth’s problems 

are all connected. It shows how in the past 50 

years – one single lifetime – the Earth has been 

more radically changed than by all previous 

generations of humanity. 

(www.homethemovie.org) 

Impacts on people 

Climate change impacts people by affecting 

agricultural production, water supplies, sanitation 

and levels of nutrition and health. These are all 

severe consequences for countries with a growing 

population. 

The health of millions could be at risk because of 

climate change. Clean water supplies will be under 

pressure because warming temperatures increase 

water pollution from bacterial growth leading to a 

rise in diarrhoeal diseases. Limited access to clean 

water could lead to malnutrition, dehydration 

and inadequate sanitation. People could suffer 

from water shortages since climate change is 

expected to alter the seasonal flows in regions 

fed by melt water from mountain ranges, such as 

the Himalayas. While melting glaciers are likely to 

increase flood risk during the rainy seasons, they 

will strongly reduce dry-season water supplies to 

one sixth of the world’s population. 




In addition, as precipitation patterns change 

with prolonged dry seasons, crop productivity 

is predicted to decrease, exposing people to 

starvation and diminishing water supplies for 

drinking and hygiene. 

This is particularly devastating for developing 

countries where 98 per cent of the world’s poor 

live. Although hurricanes and floods are already 

happening, they will rise in frequency and intensity 

along with other extreme weather events because 

of climate change, increasing the likelihood of 

destroying homes, roads and farmland. 

“Global temperatures have not been 3°C higher 

than today for 3 million years. Such warming would 

likely lead to mass migrations away from the worst 

affected regions, with the risk of severe, prolonged 

conflict.” 

(International Energy Agency) 

In less visible and immediate ways, it could also 

affect the way of life for all of us – whether our 

food and drink, use of energy, travel, leisure, 

shopping, investments or jobs – as can be seen in 

some of the following sections. 

îCase study 

Cooling or warming is not necessarily bad 

for some areas. For example, Siberia might 

get warmer in a few decades and this could be 

profitable for the local population. On the other 

hand, the impact of climate change may force 

others to leave their homes because of changing 

environmental conditions. In the Sahel region 

of Africa, for example, declining agricultural 

productivity has driven people out of their 

homes for the past 30 years; this is expected to 

continue as a result of climate change, putting 

the lives of 60 million people who live in the 

Sahel region at risk. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Draw pictures or use words to describe the 

causes, effects on the planet and impacts on 

people of climate change. 

• How does reading and talking about climate 

change make you feel? Do you feel hope, fear 

or denial? 

• How do you think other young people feel 

about climate change impacts? 

Developed countries 

Wealthy countries and countries with rapidly 

growing economies are the major consumers 

of fossil fuels and other resources. They are 

responsible for over three quarters of GHG 

emissions. Richer countries have many of 

the technical and financial resources, social 

organizations and political structures that are 

needed to reduce the causes (mitigation) and 

effects (adaptation) of climate change. 

Emerging countries 

Many developing countries are industrializing 

and experiencing rapid economic growth. As 

a consequence, they are emitting more and 

more GHGs, although developed countries are 

responsible for most of the historic emissions. 

Through what is called the principle of common 

but differentiated responsibilities, the Kyoto 

Protocol recognizes these historical differences 


16 



and requires developed countries to reduce their 

emission of greenhouse gases. Scientists agree 

that total emissions - from both developed and 

developing countries - must decrease to very low 

levels in order to prevent dramatic changes to the 

Earth’s climate. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Where do emissions come from? 

If you live in Europe, North America or Australia, 

your contribution to GHGs will be about three 

times higher than if you live in China, 10 

times that in India and up to 100 times that in 

Africa. 

Developing countries 

Developing countries are considered the most 

vulnerable to climate change because they have 

fewer resources to adapt socially, technologically 

and financially and are often very reliant on natural 

systems. The impacts of climate change would be 

mainly felt by poor and vulnerable people, such 

as children, women and the elderly, and the basis 

of their livelihoods will be challenged. 

Young people 

Young people in developing countries are likely 

to feel the impact of climate change on their 

lifestyles and livelihoods more quickly and directly 

than young people in developed countries. Most 

young people in Africa live in rural areas, where 

agriculture, which is extremely vulnerable to 

climate-related damage, accounts for 65 per cent 

of total employment. In the short term, agricultural 

production is threatened by more soil degradation 

and erosion, crop damage, and reduced harvests 

resulting from extreme weather events such as 

droughts, heat waves, severe storms, and floods. 

Because of these threats, many young people are 

migrating to cities and other countries. It is their 

way of adapting. Climate change may also cause 

conflicts due to resource scarcity, which could 

affect the lives of many young people in the long 

term. 

Many young people in developed countries work 

in the service sector, like tourism, where there are 

likely to be long-term impacts such as the skiing 

season being shorter in Europe because of melting 

glaciers, and tourists may be less attracted to 

coastal environments. 

Indigenous youth 

Young people who still live a traditional lifestyle 

with their families, based on local resources 

and culture, are likely to be the most affected 

because their livelihood is directly dependent on 

their natural environment. They can see climate 

change directly changing their lands and homes. 

As with youth in developing countries, climate 

change is therefore not only an environmental but 

also a human rights issue for them, as they are 

forced to change their lifestyle, livelihood, culture 

and worldview. Some of the traditional beliefs of 

indigenous peoples can be seen on the Climate 

Frontlines website. 

“Here in the Arctic, where the impacts of climate 

change are happening at an accelerated rate, we 

feel our physical environment, our culture, and our 

spirituality, are being disrupted. Sea ice is melting, 

coastlines are exposed and degrading, and species 

are at risk.” 

(Declaration on Climate Change from Youth of the Arctic) 

© UN photos 



Girls and young women 

Girls and young women in developing countries are 

especially vulnerable to climate change. Drought 

and floods caused by climate change can create 

more work for them and take more of their time 

for finding and fetching water or growing crops, 

as they collect water, fuel and firewood and often 

grow food for their families. As a result, many 

of them miss out on education, which means 

fewer opportunities for them to have better living 

conditions and become actors of sustainable 

development. Nonetheless, many girls and young 

women are working hard to escape from these 

conditions by becoming agents for change and 

finding ways to adapt to climate change in their 

daily lives and build stronger communities. 

îCase study 

Wangari Maathai saw many communities 

in her native Kenya suffering from lack of 

natural resources. She founded the Green Belt 

Movement – a grassroots organization that 

empowers women to improve their lives and 

conserve the environment through planting 

trees; in an effort to replenish resources and 

reduce vulnerability to climate change, one 

tree at a time. This movement has spread 

worldwide. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Evaluate one climate-related risk faced by 

your local community, town, city or country, 

for instance, the risk of droughts or heavy 

precipitation. 

What are some of the impacts of these extreme 

weather events and what can governments, civil 

society and individuals do to reduce the causes 

and effects? 

Islanders 

Small island developing states (SIDS) are among 

the lowest GHG emitters but they are likely to 

be the most affected. As low-lying islands with 

limited land and freshwater, they are likely to 

be severely affected by sea level rise and more 

extreme weather events. 

So, settlements, critical infrastructure, economic 

activities, such as tourism, and ecosystems are 

at risk. Unsustainable human activities such as 

sand mining and extensive coastal developments 

already represent a problem for many island 

states and increase their vulnerability to climate 

change impacts. 

© Listening Eye Images 

18 



“The sea is eating our island and shrinking it. Islanders 

are thinking about relocating to the mainland.” 

(Local solutions on a sinking paradise, Carteret Islands, 

Papua New Guinea) 

îCase study 

Papua New Guinea reports that 25 per 

cent of its existing shoreline has already 

been inundated. If sea level rises by 1 metre, 

the Maldives will disappear entirely, and in 

Grenada, up to 60 per cent of the beaches 

would disappear in some areas following a 50- 

centimetre sea level rise. 

The good news 

Climate change is real and needs to be addressed. 

We must find solutions to adapt the way we live 

to the new environmental conditions resulting 

from climate change. This is called adaptation 

and the good news is that it can be turned into 

opportunity, through innovation for instance. 

We also have the potential to slow down these 

changes. This is called mitigation, which means 

we need to change our behaviour to help reduce 

GHG emissions and understand that we are part 

of nature, not apart from it. We are all part of 

a chain, and we can act as agents of change. 

Young people have the most to gain and the most 

potential to make this happen over their long 

lifetime. 



5. Lifestyle choices 

Everyone wants a good life, but what do we mean by that? How often do 

we think about how we live and who influences our choices? What impact do 

different lifestyles have on our environment and natural resources? 

Lifestyles 

We are all defined by our own lifestyle. But in 

today’s consumer culture, it is often only defined 

by our possessions and consumption - the 

products or services that we choose. The word 

lifestyle is now more often used in magazines and 

advertising to sell products and services. 

But lifestyles should be understood as a 

simpler concept as it describes the world we 

live in and who we are. It includes everything 

from the moment we wake up to the moment 

we go to sleep, everything from the food we 

eat, to how we interact and the way we get 

around. People express their identity, values, 

hopes, fears, politics and social position to 

others through their lifestyle. 

We will only change our lifestyles in exchange for 

a better one. The changes will be personal for 

each of us. Young people in Indonesia will want 

and need a different lifestyle than young people 

in Italy. 

îCase study 

Our cultures, religions, communities and so 

forth often affect our lifestyle choices and how 

they relate to climate change and consumption. 

In the United Kingdom, the Akashi Project works 

with community and faith groups to better 

understand climate change and the future of 

our planet. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

List single words to describe the way you 

live (your lifestyle) – what you consume, your 

possessions, social relations, entertainment, 

habits, clothing. What can you change to make 

your lifestyle more sustainable? 

A world of choice? 

We are constantly making choices. How much 

choice we have as individuals depends on where 

and how we live, how wealthy we are and whether 

we live alone or with others. 

Lifestyles are also influenced by our personal 

history, our friends and family, our education 

and work, our culture and interests, and our 

attitudes and beliefs. Some people have a very 

lively lifestyle with lots of parties and going out 

with friends, while others may prefer a quieter 

lifestyle, staying at home with family or enjoying 

a quiet read or walk. In many countries, especially 

poorer ones, people do not choose their lifestyles, 

as they are often dictated by the need to work 

long hours to earn enough money, or produce 

enough food to survive. 


20 


“A sustainable lifestyle means rethinking our ways of 

living, how we buy and how we organize our everyday 

life. It is also about altering how we socialize, 

exchange, share, educate and build identities. 

It means transforming our societies and living in 

harmony with our natural environment. As citizens, 

at home and at work, many of our choices – on energy 

use, transport, food, waste, communication and 

solidarity – contribute towards building sustainable 

lifestyles.” 

(Report of the Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable 

Lifestyles) 

îCase study 

Climate Culture is a virtual world where 

your avatar (online persona) can make smart 

choices that save money and energy, and are 

good for the environment. The site was created 

by a group of recently graduated students in the 

United States who wanted to make a change in 

a fun way that would also make people think. 

Lifestyle choices 

The Global Footprint Network is building calculators 

for different parts of the world. It allows you 

to look at lifestyle choices and footprints in 15 

different global locations. It shows that globally, 

our lifestyles are not sustainable. In 2010 alone, 

on average, we were each using 2.7 global 

hectares. This is a global average, though, and it 

is not the same for all countries: 

ÀIn Numbers 

Global footprint of selected nations 

Global hectares 

per person 

South Africa 2.3 

Democratic Republic of Congo 0.8 

Japan 4.7 

India 0.9 

Denmark 8.3 

Romania 2.7 

Uruguay 5.1 

Haiti 0.7 

United States 8.0 

Mexico 3.0 

United Arab Emirates 10.7 

Yemen 0.9 


Ecological footprints 

Ecological footprints measure the resources used 

to support our lifestyle and compare our resource 

use to what is sustainable, considering the 

carrying capacity of the planet. This method uses 

land as a measure needed to support lifestyle. A 

sustainable lifestyle would mean each person on 

Earth using about 1.8 global hectares. 

(Footprint for nations, Global Footprint Network) 

These ecological footprint figures also show that 

if everyone lived like the average person in India, 

then we would be living within the limits of our 

planet. But millions of people in India live in poverty 

and hunger and without access to electricity. If we 

all lived a more affluent lifestyle, such as people in 

Japan, then we would need 2.6 planets to sustain 

us all. If everyone adopted the average lifestyle of 

the highest footprint countries, namely the United 

Arab Emirates, Qatar, Denmark, the United States, 

and Belgium, we would need up to six planets to 

support everyone. This reveals strong imbalances 



that have serious consequences on people’s life. 

Rich countries need to consume less and better. 

Conditions of living in developing countries need 

to be improved through more responsible and 

sustainable consumption. 

Measuring our ecological footprints as individuals, 

communities, cities, businesses and countries 

allows us to better manage our ecological assets 

by taking collective and personal action. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Carbon footprints (tons CO 2 

per person) 

United States 20.6 

United Kingdom 9.8 

China 3.8 

India 1.2 

Bangladesh 0.3 

(Human Development Report UNDP, 2007) 


Carbon footprints 

Carbon footprints show our impact on global 

warming by calculating the greenhouse gases 

(GHGs) that our lifestyle produces in a year, 

measured as tons of carbon dioxide equivalents 

(CO 2 

e). There are many online carbon calculators, 

each designed for a specific type of person in a 

specific type of climate and lifestyle. The Best 

Foot Forward ecological footprint calculator allows 

you to play with the settings to quickly see how 

your lifestyle has an impact on your ecological 

and carbon footprints. If you are from a country in 

the cooler North, the online Carbon Independent 

carbon calculator is worth trying. 

The Stern Review on the economics of climate 

change claims 5 gigatons of CO 2 

e can be 

sustainably absorbed by the planet each year. 

Given the present population of 6.6 billion people, 

that means our fair share is about 750kg of 

emissions each, per year. The global average, 

however, is currently 2 tons per person per year, 

more than double the fair share. 

Advertising 

Advertising can have a huge influence on our 

lifestyle choices as consumers. Companies use 

many different ways to encourage us to buy 

22 


or use their products. Some of these methods 

of influencing choice have been criticized for 

encouraging negative and unsustainable lifestyles. 

Some companies also mislead consumers 

regarding their environmental practices or the 

environmental benefits of a particular product or 

service, making false claims on the environmental 

sustainability of their products. This is called 

greenwashing. 

The same powerful forces that influence our 

lifestyle choices are also used to encourage us to 

make more sustainable choices. Advertisements 

can promote more environmentally friendly and 

low carbon products. These are products that 

produce less GHG emissions throughout their 

lifecycle, from the collection of raw materials and 

manufacture of products to their use and disposal. 

In addition, campaigns can help make us more 

aware of challenges such as climate change and 

how it relates to our own lives. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Every day we are exposed to hundreds 

of messages that attempt to influence our 

lifestyle choices. Here are a few tips to help you 

understand how this has an influence on you: 

• Next time you are shopping or reading a 

magazine, look at the advertisements and think 

about the lifestyles they are trying to encourage. 

Which messages help encourage behaviour to 

reduce climate change and which could make it 

worse? 

• Next time you watch TV, think about 

both positive and negative role models and 

messages. 

• If you were to promote a more sustainable and 

climate friendly lifestyle to your family or friends, 

how would you do this? Think about the different 

words, images, examples even colours that you 

might use and why. 


laws such as laws requiring buildings to be more 

energy efficient, or laws introducing labelling 

schemes that help customers to see how much 

energy products use. 

îCase study 

UNEP developed the first international online 

database of corporate and public advertising 

campaigns dedicated to sustainability issues. 

UNEP has also worked with the International 

Association of Public Transport to produce a 

joint UITP/UNEP TV campaign called The world 

is your home. Look after it. It won several 

international awards and over 60 companies and 

organizations have adapted the advertisement. 

Governments use a mix of different approaches 

to try to influence or support our lifestyle choices. 

This includes advertising but also introducing new 



6. Good life 

A good life requires good health, happiness and prosperity. But will more and 

more consumption make our life good? Can we all consume equally and as 

much as we would like? 


Consumer culture 

Some young people consume a lot. Their consumer 

culture is considered appealing and consuming is 

often seen as a source of happiness. However, 

many young people are now starting to question 

whether consuming a lot really brings happiness, 

particularly following the 2008 economic crisis. In 

fact, according to the Global Survey for Sustainable 

Lifestyles (GSSL), most young people do not have 

dreams of luxury and unlimited material comfort. 

They long for a simpler and slower life. This is 

because many young people now see how a 

culture of consumption and competition can be 

a cause of stress. Nonetheless, for some young 

people, particularly those in developing countries, 

consumption may be a remote dream, one that 

many are working towards. Consumer power 

is unevenly distributed, with huge differences 

between developed and developing countries. 

Although nearly half of the 1.7 billion people of 

the global consumer class are from developing 

countries, about a billion people will still live on 

less than US$ 1.25 a day in 2015. 

Wellbeing and happiness 

The dominant world view is that more consumption 

and economic growth will lead to more wellbeing 

and happiness. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has 

become an indicator of the standard of living and 

progress in many countries. It is the market value 

of all goods and services produced in the country 

in a given period. But in the rich world, four 

decades of rapid GDP growth, high consumption, 

and carbon emissions, has not converted into a 

proportional continuous increase in the standard 

of living or wellbeing. The Department for 

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) 

report on wellbeing research shows that there 

is now a lot of evidence for this, if we look at 

health, stress and life satisfaction. Wellbeing in 

different countries can be compared using the 

Happy Planet Index (HPI), the first ever index to 

combine environmental impact with wellbeing. 

The HPI shows that around the world, high levels 

of resource consumption do not reliably produce 

high levels of wellbeing. 

24 


Low carbon lifestyles 

Good life 

Low carbon lifestyles are not universally the same. 

They are complex and depend on the environment, 

resources, people and cultures around us. They 

can be lean (using less stuff), clean (having only 

enough or sufficient) or green, which combines 

using less stuff and having enough. It is the only 

lifestyle that connects less consumption with more 

health, creativity, prosperity and wellbeing. It is 

also not just about thinking, feeling and looking 

good for ourselves, but also about doing good for 

others and the planet. 


îCase study 

A study by Professor Easterlin examines 

the relationship between income and happiness 

over 20 years in 37 rich and poor, developed 

and developing countries. It showed that while 

the personal incomes in Chile, China and South 

Korea have doubled in less than 20 years, there 

have been no significant rises in happiness. 

While in the long term money does not buy 

happiness, in the short term, case studies 

reveal that there is a relationship between 

income growth and happiness. 

A low carbon lifestyle – one that creates less CO 2 

and greenhouse gases – means: 

• Less travel, especially by air and car; 

• More efficient use of energy in appliances 

and homes; 

• More energy efficient production of food 

and other goods; 

• Fewer and more locally-produced 

consumer goods. 

Consuming the Earth 

Our global consumption has already exceeded the 

Earth’s carrying capacity. In fact, considering the 

way and the amount we consume, we will soon 

run out of many of the Earth’s finite resources. 

Currently, we need 1.4 Earths to sustain our 

lifestyles. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 

Change (IPCC) says that while the Earth’s carbon 

sinks such as trees can absorb only 3.1 billion tons 

of carbon dioxide (CO 2 

) from the atmosphere, 

carbon sources like cars are emitting 7.2 billion 

tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere each 

year, more than double the absorption capacity of 

the Earth. 



Good life 

îCase The Low Carbon Lifestyle Tour was a six 

month voyage, visiting 40 ports around Britain 

in the revolutionary zero-emission Explorer 

Microyacht, to promote the benefits of low 

carbon living to an audience of 12 million people. 

The message was that low carbon lifestyles are 

easy, fun, save money and improve your quality 

of life. 

The challenges of climate change give high 

consumers some good reasons to change to a 

lower carbon lifestyle. Young people are finding 

that green, sustainable lifestyles are a new and 

exciting opportunity for them to shape their 

future. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Describe a low carbon lifestyle, using a 

picture of a stick person or simple words. 

Consider the differences between this and your 

current lifestyle. What can you change about 

your lifestyle to make it a low carbon one? 

We may all have many different reasons for 

changing to a low carbon lifestyle. From both a 

personal and social point of view, it offers many 

advantages: 

• Being creative and innovative to improve 

our lives, health, wellbeing and environment; 

• Exploring new ways of working and living 

together; 

• Setting an example for others; 

• Improving skills of working with the natural 

environment; 

• Caring for less advantaged people and 

being fair to all; 

• Having concern for future generations and 

the wellbeing of our families; 

• Being well prepared for the future; 

• Securing local supplies and being self 

sufficient; 

• Experiencing fewer conflicts over scarce, 

non-renewable sources like oil and coal; 

• Experiencing fewer emergencies and 

disasters like hurricanes and floods; 

• Experiencing less forced migration due 

to sea level rise and extreme changes of 

climate. 

study 

Divide into groups and discuss the 

‹ 

Get Active! 

following: 


26 

• With all these advantages and our goodwill, 

why is it so hard to change? 

• What challenges do we face for changing to a 

low carbon lifestyle? 

• What can we do to overcome those challenges 

and start changing? 


Creative communities are mobilizing, 

governments are creating policies and businesses 

are producing products that can all contribute 

to more sustainable lifestyles. They all need to 

do more to enable the shift towards sustainable 

lifestyles. But the transition we need must take 

place in people’s hearts and minds as much as 

in our green buildings, electricity networks and 

efficient transport systems. 

Pessimism 

Good life 

Some people have pessimistic views about 

climate change and these views can affect our 

understanding of the impact of our lifestyles on 

climate change. See How to talk to a climate 

sceptic for some ideas on how to respond to the 

most common sceptical arguments on climate 

change. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

What are the attractions of a low carbon 

lifestyle? What are the difficulties? What would 

you be glad to get rid of or to stop doing? 

What would you miss? List the attractions and 

difficulties and share them with your group. 

Discuss the following questions with your group 

and plan how to spread your message of low 

carbon lifestyles: 

• What can we do as individuals now? 

• What will the government need to support? 

• How will work, leisure and travel need to 

change? 

• What will need changing in how people think 

about their life? 

• How soon might we achieve these changes? 


îCase study 

In Japan, interesting new trends are 

showing a shift in what young people think of 

a good lifestyle. One trend is de-ownership. For 

some young people cars, books and clothes are 

not things to buy and own but just to use, when 

wanted. Their identity is shifting slowly from 

what I have to who I am. More than 10 cities in 

Japan have issued a Slow-Life City declaration, 

and they are organizing conferences called 

Slow-Life City Summits. Libraries, car pooling 

and tool hire are other examples of this 

collaborative consumption. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Test yourself by replying to these sceptical 

statements: 

Changing my lifestyle is not going to have an 

effect on climate change. (Every little helps. We 

can all set an example and be the change we 

want to see). 

I have to pay more for green products and 

services. (Some products last longer, are 

healthier and safer). 

I will not have so many good things in life to 

enjoy. (Less can be more. Less stuff means more 

space and more time for other things). 


7. Food 

We all need food and drink to survive, but for some, what they eat and drink 

is more a matter of lifestyle choice than survival. What are the impacts of the 

choices we make on food and drink and what alternatives are available to us? 

A world of opposites 

As a world population, we have never had so 

much food. The world produces enough food to 

feed everyone. Improvements in farming and the 

easier transportation of food around the world are 

just two of the reasons why. But this is not the 

case everywhere. 

transported over great distances. A popular way 

of measuring our food’s footprint is the idea of 

food miles - how far a particular food has travelled 

to get to our plates. 

Globally, almost a billion people (around 15 per 

cent of the world population) go to sleep hungry 

every night, most of them living in Asia and 

Africa. For them, choice and access are luxuries 

they do not yet have. They simply need more 

food. In other parts of the world, especially the 

more developed regions, there are over a billion 

people who are overweight, with 300 million being 

obese, the majority of them being poor people. 

Obesity has increased globally by around three 

times since 1980, mainly because of an increase 

in high-fat and high-sugar convenience foods. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Average world calories per person 1967- 

2007 

1967 2329 

1977 2430 

1987 2621 

1997 2704 

2007 2798 

(FAOStat) 

Food miles 

Our food and drink choices have an effect on 

the environment and are a major contributor to 

climate change. Some of these effects are easy to 

see, for instance, in the case of the transportation 

of food from where it is grown to where it is 

consumed. Modern methods of transport and 

technology, such as refrigeration, allow food to be 

ÀIn Numbers 

Common food imports in the United 

Kingdom 

Item From Approx distance 

Carrots South Africa 5,900 miles 

& peas 

(9,500 km) 

Apples United States 10,000 miles 

(16,000 km) 

Potatoes Israel 2,200 miles 

(3,500 km) 

Chicken Thailand 6,500 miles 

(10,500 km) 

Prawns Indonesia 7,000 miles 

(11,200 km) 

Lamb New Zealand 14,000 miles 

(22,500 km) 

(Nuffield Education for Citizenship food miles factsheet) 


28 


The Organic Linker food miles calculator allows 

you to select where you are and where your food 

came from. This way, you can get an estimate of 

how far it has travelled in food miles. 

Although food miles have received a lot of 

attention, they only account for a small proportion 

of the energy consumed and emissions produced 

by the food industry. The growing of food, the 

harvesting and processing and the storage and 

selling of food all have a much greater impact 

on the environment and carbon dioxide (CO 2 

) 

emissions. 

Farm animals 

Farm animals are a big cause of climate change. 

They have an impact by releasing greenhouse 

gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide 

through their respiration and digestion, as well 

as deforestation for grazing and crop land. About 

30 per cent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 

from food production can come directly from farm 

animals. Methane released by farm animals is 

particularly important because its warming effect 

in the atmosphere is about 21 times greater than 

carbon dioxide. Methane from farm animals is 

increasing as meat based diets increase around 

the world. Meat based diets are also very energy 

inefficient. Around 40 calories of energy, in the 

form of food, are needed to produce a single 

calorie of beef. 

Virtual water 

Food 

Water use is another important factor to think 

about. When we take water from the environment, 

we treat it and distribute it to homes, businesses 

and factories for processing. After its use, it is 

collected as sewage and then treated before 

it is put back into the environment. This entire 

process requires energy and is therefore partly 

responsible for GHG emissions. 

Around 70 per cent of global water use is for 

agriculture. Food processing and manufacturing 

are also major consumers of water. Lifestyle 

choices are particularly important here, because 

diets that consume high levels of meat or 

processed foods, for instance, place particular 

pressure on water resources. One way to look at 

this is to think about the hidden or virtual water 

footprint within different everyday food products. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Litres of water needed to produce: 

1 litre of tea 100 

1 litre of milk 1000 

1 kg of rice 3400 

1 kg of cheese 5000 

1 kg of beef 15500 

(Water Footprint) 



Food 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Examine your food habits. Answer the 

following questions and see where you can make 

positive changes: 

In more developed nations, growing your own 

food has increased in popularity in recent years. 

• How do you choose what to eat? 

• Where does your food come from? 

• Do you get to make the choices of what you 

eat and where you get it from? 

• What can you do to change your food habits? 

Food choices are very complex because it is 

not always easy to uncover the full story about 

the food we eat, and even less about how it 

contributes to climate change. There are many 

different campaigns and initiatives that are geared 

towards helping us make these choices. Here are 

some of the leading ideas and what they might 

mean for you. 

Local food 

Because of the growing awareness of food 

miles, there have been many campaigns 

aimed at persuading consumers to buy food 

that is produced locally instead of food that is 

transported from hundreds or even thousands of 

kilometres away. In many cases, it is possible to 

find local alternatives, but sometimes, they are 

more expensive and there may not be enough 

to provide for everyone. In general, buying local 

and seasonal foods will reduce the use of fossil 

fuels, boost local economies and increase people’s 

awareness of where their food comes from. 

Across the world, millions of people are growing 

their own food. This is especially true in 

developing countries where even the smallest 

of spaces are put to use to grow crops or keep 

animals. In large cities like Mumbai in India, it is 

not unusual to see small plots of land producing 

food for the local people. However, this can be 

challenging for some developing countries, which 

do not produce enough local food, and as a result, 

they rely heavily on imported foods. 

îCase study 

Since 1991, The Food Project has been 

engaging young people in personal and 

social change through community supported 

agriculture. It uses rooftops, greenhouses 

and suburban vegetable plots in the several 

American towns and cities. Youth work as 

local producers by growing the food and then 

distributing it through farmers markets and 

organizations that help to feed the hungry. 

The young people gain valuable job experience 

and a personal connection to food systems and 

issues of food justice. 

Meat-free meals 

The high environmental impact of meat based 

diets has led experts calling for more people 

to reduce their meat consumption, or adopt a 

vegetarian or vegan diet. 

Global meat production is projected to more 

than double from 229 million tons in 1999/2001 

to 465 million tons in 2050. By reducing 

meat consumption, this will help decrease 

the greenhouse gas emissions released from 

livestock. 

Flickr: Christiana Care 

30 


ÀIn Numbers 

Meat consumption (kg per person per year) 

Country 1980 2002 

Denmark 85 146 

United States 108 125 

United Kingdom 71 80 

China 15 52 

Bangladesh 2 3 

(Food and Agricultural Organisation 2004) 

Food 

îCase study 

The Gambia’s Ministry of Youth and Sport 

is working with several youth organizations 

at the local and district level to create district 

youth farms across the country. The farms will 

engage youth in growing local food for sale as 

part of The Gambia’s drive to become more self 

sufficient in food. The hope is that this initiative 

will encourage youth to take up farming and help 

transform their own lives and communities. 

îCase study 

Some popular campaigns aimed at reducing 

meat consumption to tackle climate change 

include Meat-Free Monday, a campaigned 

launched in 2009 by Sir Paul McCartney calling 

on households to be meat-free on Mondays to 

help reduce climate change. This came a year 

after Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United 

Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 

Change (IPCC), said that people should have 

one meat-free day a week to help reduce 

climate change. 

Organic food 

Food produced using organic farming methods 

produces fewer emissions and uses less energy. 

This is because it recycles nutrients into the 

ground instead of adding them using artificial 

chemicals in their manufacture. This uses large 

amounts of energy, often from the burning of 

fossil fuels. 

Organic food is generally more expensive than 

conventional foods because the price not only 

reflects the cost of food production itself, but a 

number of other factors that are not part of the 

price of conventional food, such as environmental 

enhancement and protection. However, as demand 

for organic food increases along with more 

technological innovations, this may help reduce 

costs of production, processing, distribution and 

marketing for organic produce, making it cheaper 

for consumers. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Carry out a personal food audit by 

examining your food habits: 

Over one week of shopping, take note of where 

you food comes from. 

Using a website (e.g. http://www.organiclinker. 

com/food-miles.cfm), calculate the food miles 

involved in your food. 

Look at the types of food you have and think 

about the energy and emissions involved in 

different types of food. 

Your results may tell you that it is time to reduce 

your impact on resources. Think about your 

lifestyle choices. 

• What can you change? 

• What are some of the more difficult things to 

change? 

• What kind of information would help you make 

better choices? 

Y o u t h X c h a n g e - C l i m a t e c h a n g e a n d l i f e s t y l e s 31 

© Shutterstock

8. Energy control 

We are dependent on energy, but do we have to use so much of it? How can we 

use energy in a way that reduces our greenhouse gas emissions? 

Energy rules 

We need energy to create everything we buy, 

eat, travel in, use, such as electricity, and wear. 

Energy is the master resource in any society. In 

developing countries, where many people live 

in energy poverty lacking electricity and heat, 

energy is particularly needed to help improve their 

economies and the lives of people by lifting them 

out of poverty. Access to electricity helps people 

live longer and healthier lives. Nonetheless, to 

help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 

both developing and developed countries need 

to lessen their use of fossil fuels as a source of 

energy. One way of doing this is by relying on 

renewable energy sources like wind and solar. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Access to electricity 



About 25 per cent of the world’s population do 

not have access to electricity, of which 83 per 

cent live in rural areas. In sub-Saharan Africa 

only 12 per cent of the rural population has 

access to electricity. 


Fossil Fuels 

Fossil fuels, such as oil, as well as coal and natural 

gas that are still important sources of energy in 

developing countries, are hydrocarbons that are 

formed from the remains of dead animals and 

plants. We have been using fossil fuels to create 

energy for centuries now. In the United States 

alone, fossil fuels provide more than 85 per cent 

of all the energy used, much of which is used 

for electricity and transportation. Fossil fuels are 

finite and non-renewable. They will eventually 

run out. They need many years to form and 

reserves are being depleted faster than new ones 

are being formed. Some experts believe we have 

already reached Peak Oil – the time when the oil 

drilled from Earth is starting to decline. Some also 

believe Peak Gas is on its way. Fossil fuels not 

only release harmful greenhouse gases into the 

atmosphere, but they have also been increasing 

conflict between some countries. Despite this, 

the reliance on fossil fuels is on the rise. Demand 

for energy is growing, particularly from the BRIC 

countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China. 

32 


Energy control 

ÀIn Numbers 

Energy consumption increasing 

Global energy consumption is set to grow over 

40 per cent between 2006 and 2030, with 70 

per cent in developing countries. 

Energy consumption in the BRIC countries alone 

is expected to grow by 72 per cent, compared 

with 29 per cent in the 34 Organisation for 

Economic Co-operation and Development 

(OECD) countries. 

(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 

OECD) 

Energy choices 

To meet our current and future energy demands 

in a way that will not harm the environment, we 

have two choices – either to use energy from 

renewable sources such as from the sun and wind 

or to use energy in a more efficient and wise way. 

Using energy more efficiently not only helps the 

environment, but it is also more cost effective. 

However, this poses a challenge for all. Countries 

with high carbon footprints, for instance, may 

want to continue in their path of consumption, 

while those with lower carbon footprints may 

want to increase their economic activities and 

develop further. Therefore, exploring and using 

more renewable energy could provide the best 

solution for all. Aiming for a fairer carbon lifestyle 

for everyone on Earth is the key objective. 

Renewable energy 

As well as using energy in a more efficient way, 

we can try to use electricity that is not made by 

burning carbon fuels. One way to mitigate GHGs 

is to shift from oil and coal to renewable energy 

sources, such as wind turbines, solar panels 

or hydro dams. A renewable energy source is a 

source of energy that is replaced by a natural or 

carefully controlled process at a rate that is equal 

to or faster than the rate at which the resource is 

being consumed. 

Although we are not yet able to capture this 

tremendous amount of energy, enough sunshine 

reaches the Earth in two hours to meet the 

world’s energy needs for a year. Some scientists 

believe we could get all the energy we need from 

renewable sources - sun, wind, water, biomass, 

heat from within the Earth - within a few decades, 

making oil and coal nearly unnecessary. Many 

future careers, such as those in renewable 

energy and technology sectors, will help shape a 

green economy, based on sustainable, accessible 

and clean energy solutions. UNESCO’s Global 

Renewable Energy Education and Training 

programme has helped to develop these careers 

in many developing countries. More international 

cooperation is needed to share knowledge, 

technologies and build capacity, especially for 

developing countries that need support. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Worldwide energy sources 

Energy source % 

Oil 34 

Coal 25 

Gas 21 

Biomass and Waste 11 

Nuclear 6.5 

Hydroelectricity 2.2 

Geothermal, solar, wind 0.5 





Personal control 

Young people do not usually have full control of 

the temperature or light in the buildings they are 

in. But they may control their own use of it. The 

more electricity we use, the higher the demand 

to produce this electricity, which generally means 

burning fossil fuels. And the more fossil fuels we 

burn, the more GHG emissions we release into 

the atmosphere. 

Talking with others who share our home, school, 

college, university or workplace is the best way to 

start reducing energy usage, like electricity. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

How can switching a light off to reduce 

electricity use also reduce the risk of flooding on 

other side of world? 

Draw a series of pictures or cartoons to illustrate 

the links – and then use this to explain to 

others. 

Controlling temperature 

For many people, especially in developed countries, 

the biggest emissions are from energy used to 

heat or cool homes. A 1°C drop in temperature, 

which we would hardly feel, may reduce fuel use 

by 15 per cent. 

Heating water 

Everyone has a way of heating water. Dung 

fuel, wood fuel, camping gas, oil, electric stoves 

and microwave are each sources of energy 

with different effects on climate change. Solar 

cookers are now being promoted in hot countries, 

especially China, as an appropriate, simple 

technology with zero carbon emissions. 

The top three electrical appliances that use the 

most power to heat water are the dishwasher, 

washing machine and tumble drier. These wet 

appliances may use about 25 per cent of the 

domestic energy and water consumption in 

developed countries. Cold appliances like fridges 

and freezers are also energy hungry. But newer 

ones are about twice as energy efficient as 10 year 

old ones. Energy efficient appliances can often be 

spotted by various eco and energy labels. 

✓ Tips 

Insulation as well as natural ventilation 

and shading can all help keep comfortable 

temperatures in the home. However, wearing 

warm or cool clothes, installing electronic 

temperature controls and moving to different 

parts of the home for different activities use less 

energy. 

A thermometer or heat-sensitive strip can be 

used to find the different heat zones in a room 

or building. You then know which parts of the 

building to use or change. 

Controls on thermostats, radiators, air 

conditioning and water heating could be turned 

down. Using a ceiling fan and opening the 

windows and doors to create an air current can 

also reduce the need for air conditioners. 

A microwave or pressure cooker uses much less 

electricity than a gas oven. 


Controlling lights and appliances 

The energy efficiency of light bulbs varies hugely. 

The International Energy Agency estimates that 

a worldwide switch to efficient lighting could cut 

global electricity use by 10 per cent. 

34 


✓ 

Tips 

Fully loaded machines that wash clothes 

and dishes at lower temperatures can reduce 

electricity usage. 

Air-drying clothes saves electricity, unlike using 

a tumble drier. 


îCase study 

The solar and pedal-powered rechargeable 

LED lights produced by Nuru Designs are 

transforming lives in rural Rwanda, by enabling 

children to study, home-based businesses to 

operate, and households to function after dark, 

while reducing emissions. 

✓ Tips 

Notices next to light switches can remind 

forgetful people to turn off the lights when they 

leave the room. Timer or movement-sensitive 

light switches are also energy efficient. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Standby 

The world’s standby products, using up to 10 

per cent of household energy consumption, 

are estimated to cause 1 per cent of global 

CO 2 

emissions. For instance, a typical TV on 

standby has as big a carbon footprint as a 

typical person in Burundi. 

Flickr: Earth Hour Global 

ÀIn Numbers 

Lightbulb efficiency 

Newer energy efficient bulbs, such as lightemitting 

diodes (LEDs) bulbs, last up to five 

times longer and are over twice as efficient as 

compact fluorescent bulbs. 

Only 5 per cent of the energy used by 

incandescent bulbs is turned into light. Most 

escapes as heat. 

✓ Tips 

Greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced 

by: 

Sharing televisions, computers and other 

electronic items with other household members. 

Buying energy-efficient electronics and 

appliances, and plug timer switches. 

Buying a solar charger, such as for a mobile 

phone. This avoids buying products that use 

external power transformers (chargers). Better 

still, try doing without so many electronic 

devices, and enjoy the alternatives. 

Unplugging all idle appliances from the main 

switches. Better still pulling out plugs surprisingly 

saves electricity. If the plug gets even slightly 

warm, it is still using power. 

Many power companies offer slightly more 

expensive green tariffs, but the money is 

invested in renewable energy 


9. Travel and transport 

The movement of people and goods is an essential part of life, but is this 

movement always necessary? What are our choices in travel and transport? 

A world on the move 

We live in a world on the move and this movement 

is increasing. Much of the increase in mobility has 

been in more developed countries but mobility 

is also growing rapidly in developing countries. 

Urban development contributes to this increase 

in mobility as a result of rising migration into 

urban centres. Today, more than half of the world 

population is living in cities and this is expected 

to swell to almost 5 billion by 2030, with most 

of this growth in the developing countries in Asia 

and Africa. This, along with rising mobility, poses 

a challenge to the existing transport infrastructure 

such as roads and public transport, which are 

developing more slowly, creating more congestion 

and pollution. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Increasing travel 

In 1950, the average UK resident travelled 

around 5 miles (8 km) per day. This increased 

to 30 miles (48 km) per day by 2007 and is 

expected to double by 2030. 

Per year, vehicle ownership is rising at a rate 

of 15 to 20 per cent in much of the developing 

world, as more and more people live and work 

in cities. Nonetheless, vehicle ownership rates 

are still low, ranging from 15 per cent in Mexico 

and Brazil to less than one per cent in India 

and Nigeria. 

(World Business Council for Sustainable Development) 

Transport is necessary to provide access to 

essential services such as health and education. 

For instance, in Morocco, the number of girls in 

school more than doubled in areas where the 

roads were improved. Better transport can also 

improve incomes. In parts of rural Africa and 

South America, road building has allowed farmers 

to get more crops to markets. Food production 

and incomes have increased by up to 200 per 

cent as a result. Transport links also improve lives 

by allowing people to visit friends and family, to 

enjoy their leisure time or to visit new places. 

“Mobility is essential to economic and social 

development. It enables people to access goods, 

services and information, as well as jobs, markets, 

family and friends. Mobility can enhance quality 

of life, but the development of mobility in today’s 

conditions also brings congestion, air pollution, 

traffic-related accidents and the environmental costs 

of transportation.” 

World Business Council for Sustainable Development 

Mobility for Development facts and trends 

Transport emissions 

However, there is a negative side to increased 

travel and transport, together with urban 

development. Mobility is rapidly becoming one 

of the greatest challenges facing developed and 

developing countries alike. Transport accounts for 

approximately 15 per cent of overall greenhouse 

gas emissions. Most of today’s modern transport 

methods rely on oil or other fossil fuels for their 

Flickr: Steven Vance 

36 


energy. There are also rising concerns about their 

impact on the quality of urban life, including social 

inequalities, and about the effects of their pollution 

on health and buildings. As well as contributing to 

climate change, transport emissions cause health 

and breathing problems such as asthma. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Emissions from transport 

In the 27 countries of the European Union (EU), 

transport makes up around 23 per cent of total 

greenhouse gas emissions and in the United 

States it is 28 per cent. 

Global emissions from transport have grown 

by 45 per cent from 1990 to 2007, led by 

emissions from the road sector in terms of 

volume and by shipping and aviation in terms 

of highest growth rates. Global greenhouse 

gas emissions from transport are expected to 

continue to grow by approximately 40 per cent 

from 2007 to 2030. 

(International Transport Forum. Reducing greenhouse gas 

emissions trends and data. 2010) 

Travel and transport 

ownership is lower. In more developed countries, 

public transport is often the best option in larger 

towns and cities where it is usually the cheapest 

and quickest choice. Unfortunately, public 

transport is normally less available in rural areas 

and people living there often have far fewer 

choices. This is why developing infrastructures, as 

well as services, is crucial for sustainable mobility 

to be accessible to everyone. 

✓ Tips 

Another environmentally friendly option that 

is gaining popularity is car pooling, the sharing 

of rides in a private vehicle and car sharing. 

A car pooling system increases the number of 

passengers in cars, allowing for fuel costs to be 

shared, while also contributing to reduced traffic, 

emissions and pollution, as there are fewer cars 

on the roads. 

Making better choices 

The choices young people make about how they 

travel are especially important, because they can 

often form habits that continue into adulthood, 

and these choices can make a considerable 

difference to both people and environments. The 

most sustainable forms of transport are those 

that do not require fuels. For the short trip, the 

choices of walking and biking have a big impact 

on reducing climate change, but they may not 

always be possible because of safety, weather, or 

practical limits. 

If we need to use fuel based options, then public 

transport is often the next best choice, using 

buses, trains or the urban rail systems found in 

some larger cities like Mumbai and New York. Public 

transport is also more efficient, for example a 

typical highway can move up to 4,000 passengers 

per hour, but a dedicated bus lane can move up 

to 20,000! Public transport is especially important 

in less developed countries where private vehicle 

îCase study 

Youth for Public Transport, managed by the 

International Association for Public Transport, 

has an online network and forum and provides 

advice on youth action, training and advocacy. 

It recently organized the first ever worldwide 

public transport flash mob, involving groups of 

people who assembled in large public places 

in different cities around the world to raise 

awareness on this issue. 


Flickr: Blue Grama


“I enjoy using public transport when I am with my 

friends because we get to talk about so many things 

before we arrive at our destination. It’s like a 

moment to bond.” 

(Philippines, Female (18-23 year old) - Visions for Change: 

Recommendations for Effective Policies on Sustainable 

Lifestyles) 

îCase study 

Students in colleges and universities around 

the world may often lead the way on making 

lifestyle choices about transport. In 1997, 

students at the University of British Columbia, 

Canada, developed a range of transportation 

options to provide more sustainable transport 

choices. They worked with the local bus company 

to offer lower fares to students, introduced car 

pooling and better facilities for cyclists. These 

actions reduced the number of cars coming 

onto campus by around 12,000 per day! 


Urban Public Transport 

More than half of the world’s population lives in 

cities and so their travel choices are very important. 

Cities often suffer from traffic congestion and poor 

air quality caused by pollution from transport. 

But cities also offer some of the most sustainable 

transport options available. A large population 

makes it possible to invest in public transport 

systems such as urban rail, dedicated bus lanes 

and cycle schemes. 

îCase study 

In Curitiba, Brazil the Bus Rapid Transit 

system allows 1.9 million people (75 per cent 

of the working population) to move in the city 

every day. This has inspired similar systems 

around the world, such as Istanbul, Turkey. 

The project Megacities on the move looks at 

different futures based on the decisions cities 

make about travel and transport. 

To fly or not? 

Globally, people are flying more. In 2010, 

scheduled passenger air traffic grew by around 8 

per cent and cargo traffic by 20 per cent. A major 

challenge of this increase is the contribution that 

flying makes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 

and climate change. Around 3 per cent of global 

emissions are from flying, but this is increasing as 

more people choose to fly. Emissions from flying 

are more damaging because they are released 

higher in the atmosphere. Long distance flights 

make up most of the emissions from aircraft, 

but flights over a short distance are seen as the 

most avoidable because of the alternative choices 

available. Choosing to travel by train between 

London and Paris for example, produces just 10 

per cent of the emissions produced by flying. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Emissions from flying 

A single flight from Germany to the Caribbean 

produces around 4 tons of CO 2 

per passenger. 

This is more than four times the average annual 

emissions of a person living in India. 

(AtmosFair – Impact of air travel) 

Touring the planet 

People travel around the world for many reasons 

- to discover new places, to relax, to meet new 

people and learn about new cultures. This mass 

38 


tourism may seem harmless, but in fact it both 

contributes to GHG emissions and can have 

a negative social and cultural impact on the 

local community. When a natural environment 

is destroyed by mass tourism, the traditions 

of communities that depend on this natural 

environment can be affected. For example, if 

trees are cut down to make room for building 

hotels and resorts, this not only causes displaced 

villages, but the religious rituals or traditions of 

those that depend on the forests can disappear 

over time. 

îCase study 

UNEP’s Green Passport campaign introduces 

tourists to sustainable ways of travelling, by 

choosing the least polluting form of transport, 

finding low impact accommodation options, 

improving their energy efficiency at destinations 

and offsetting the inevitable carbon emissions 

of their trip. 


‹ 

Get Active! 

We all need to travel, but we can ask 

ourselves some critical questions to make the 

best transport choices: 

• Can I walk or cycle easily and safely? 

• Is there a way to get to my destination using 

public transport? 

• If I have to use a car then can I share my 

journey with someone else or do several things 

on one journey? 

• Are there alternatives to flying and do I need 

to fly in the first place? 

ÀIn Numbers 

Tourism and climate change 

Tourism accounts for 5 per cent of global CO 2 

emissions. Projections show that if no action is 

taken, emissions could triple by 2035. There 

is great variation across tourism sectors and 

within individual trips. For example, while 

long haul travel account for just 2.7 per cent 

of all tourist trips, they contribute 17 per cent 

to global tourism emissions. And while 34 per 

cent of all trips are made by coach and rail, 

they only account for 13 per cent of emissions. 

(Climate Neutral Network, UNEP) 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Complete a travel audit over a normal 

week of your personal transport choices to see 

whether you could make some changes to your 

own lifestyle. 

Have a look at some green travel tips for your 

next trip. 



10. Leisure and entertainment 

We all want to enjoy life, but are there ways we can do so that also reduce 

our impact on the planet and its resources? 

Having fun 

Leisure time is an essential part of healthy living. 

It is important for young people to break away 

from their busy lifestyles to take some time out 

for recreation and pure enjoyment. There are 

certainly ways to have fun whilst taking action 

on climate change. There are now many green 

choices we can make about sports, games, arts, 

films, festivals, holidays, youth activities and 

projects. Changing people’s behaviour for the 

better is easier when it’s fun! In fact, young people 

lead the growth in climate-friendly acoustic music 

jams, board games in cafes and green festivals. 

îCase study 

Take a look at the Fun Theory to see how 

simple everyday actions can be presented in a 

fun way and be good for the environment! 

Organizing low carbon events 

Many young people have the chance to organize 

fairs or festivals in their community or college, 

or at family gatherings, parties and seasonal 

celebrations. Why not make them green events? 


✓ Tips 

There are many ways to go green when 

organizing events, for example, having 

vegetarian/organic food choices, using washable 

and recyclable cutlery and crockery, having 

paperless invitations, relying on natural light, 

etc. 

îCase study 

Young people in parts of England and 

Denmark can now experience simple, low-tech 

living in the wilderness by hiring Danish hiking 

shelters. These shelters are built using wood 

from locally harvest timber and insulating roofs, 

with nearby compost toilets. 

Flickr: Camp Action Climat 

40 


Low carbon sports 

Any sport that uses fuel is likely to be carbon 

costly whether in a powered vehicle, travelling to 

get to the sport, in the sports clothing or sports 

equipment or on the surfaces. But think of the 

sports that are low carbon - activities that allow 

you to interact with your natural environment like 

cycling, skateboarding, surfing, climbing, sailing, 

canoeing, football, etc. 

Leisure and entertainment 

îCase study 

The Otesha Project, Canada, uses bicycle 

theatre to encourage young people to think 

about their lifestyle choices. The youth-led 

project runs cycle tours for young people, 

stopping off at schools, community groups and 

festivals along the way to perform their plays or 

run workshops in sustainable living. The project 

started in Canada in 2003, but its ideas and 

actions have since spread to the Philippines, 

Japan, the United Kingdom and Australia. 

Flickr: Greenkozi 

îCase study 

The Action Sports Environmental Coalition 

is paving the way for skateboarders, surfers, 

snowboarders, BMX bikers to buy green and 

ride green. One of their member organizations, 

Comet, uses sustainably harvested bamboo and 

non-toxic resins to make its skateboards. 

îCase study 

The Beijing Olympics met many of its 

pledges on the environment based on a report 

by UNEP. From reducing air pollution to big 

investments in public transport and renewable 

energies, the organizers made major efforts to 

ensure that the games marked a step forward 

in terms of an eco-friendly mass spectator 

sporting event. 

Climate-friendly arts 

Performing and visual arts have the power to 

express and explore other ways of looking at the 

world, enabling us to question and change our 

lifestyles. 

îCase study 

The Young Artists Fellowship for the 

Environment (YAFE) uses art as a platform for 

environmental campaigning in the Philippines. 

Over the years, YAFE has implemented various 

projects from grassroots initiatives such as 

EnviroArt workshops, murals, theatre plays or 

art exhibits highlighting environmental issues. 

✓ Tips 

Organizing events that are climate-friendly 

can be good for their promotion and reputation, 

as well as for the planet and the participants. 

The visual and performing arts can help to 

expose and express issues related to climate 

change, consumerism and sustainable lifestyles. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Explore ways to convey different low carbon 

leisure and entertainment activities by drawing 

a picture, inventing a game, singing a song, 

designing a house or room, writing a poem, or 

planning something. 

Now spread your message of adopting more 

sustainable activities with others! 


11. Shopping for stuff 

For many young people, shopping is both a regular habit and a necessity. We 

all need some things, but is buying them always the best way? What choices 

and alternatives might there be? 

Ethical Shopping 

Shopping is one of the biggest areas in which young 

people can most obviously make a contribution 

to counter climate change. To many, the impact 

of clothes, toiletries and CDs on greenhouse gas 

emissions is not always easy to spot or measure. 

However, through ethical shopping, which is 

becoming increasingly popular, we can reduce our 

carbon footprint. 

Ethical shopping is buying stuff that is produced 

with ethical standards, which means stuff with 

minimal harm to people, animals or the natural 

environment. Arguably the most important is to 

make a positive choice to buy stuff that is fair 

trade, cruelty free, organic, recycled, re-used, 

or produced locally since it directly supports 

innovative companies. But we can also make 

a choice to avoid or boycott things that are not 

produced in an ethical way. 

Zero waste 

Fossil fuels are used to create the energy needed 

to produce products for consumers. The burning 

of these fossil fuels, in addition to the creation of 

waste, some of which is released into land, sea 

and the air, is detrimental to the environment. 

As consumers we are depleting the Earth’s finite 

natural resources because of the way we buy, use 

and dump in a linear flow. 

In natural systems, resources like carbon dioxide 

move in a circular flow. They produce no or zero 

waste because the output from one system is 

the input into another system. However, with the 

increased use of fossil fuels, this flow between the 

output of rising amounts of greenhouse gases to 

the input into another system is broken, creating 

increasing waste in the atmosphere. 

As individuals, we can break away from this 

chain and strive towards producing zero waste, 

employing the same circular flow that our 

natural systems use. Zero waste means reducing 

consumption and ensuring that the products 

we use are reused, repaired or recycled. Our 

challenge now is to rethink the way we do things. 

The video Get loopy shows why and how this 

could be done. 

© Listening Eye Images (Anokhi) 


42 


Embedded water 

Most things we buy need water to produce them. 

The processing, production and transport of 

textiles and food can often need up to 20 times 

the volume as embedded (or virtual) water. 

Greenhouse gases are emitted when water for this 

processing, production and transport is collected, 

cleaned, stored and pumped. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Embedded water 

Product 

Cotton T-shirt 

Pair of leather shoes 

Sheet of A4 paper 

(Water Footprint) 

Virtual water 

2,050 litres 

8,000 litres 

10 litres 

Shopping for stuff 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Here are the 5 Rs to keep in mind before 

buying anything new! 

Rethink – Do you really need it? 

Reduce – Could you have or use less of it? 

Repair – Could it be mended or maintained? 

Re-use – Can it be used for other purposes? 

Recycle – Can it be recycled to avoid dumping 

underground? 

In addition, while a large amount of water is used 

in the production of goods and services, many 

people in the world survive on just 10 litres a 

day and over a billion people have no access to 

clean drinking water. Yet much of their water is 

embedded in items they export for the lifestyles 

of other people. 

Alternatives to buying new 

Instead of buying, we often have the options to 

borrow, swap, buy second-hand, make or repair. 

The 5 Rs are a handy way of questioning if we 

need to buy new stuff, and what we do with the 

stuff we already own. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Buying new things may be enjoyable, but 

is it always necessary? Answer the following 

questions to help determine if you really need to 

buy new things. 

• What are the alternatives? 

• What about borrowing, loaning, swapping, 

buying second hand and making new stuff? 

• What are the benefits of these options? 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Discuss the 5 Rs with others and how you 

might use them. Bring along a small favourite 

object and see how you would apply the 5Rs 

to some of your favourite possessions or small 

objects. What do they represent to you? 




îCase study 

The Freecycle Network is a free Internet 

service linking people who want to get rid of 

something with other local people who might 

want it. It now has nearly 6 million members in 

over 85 countries, having started in the United 

States in 2003. 

Clothes and textiles 

Clothes and textiles make up a small part (about 

2 per cent in developed countries) of your carbon 

footprint. However, for some young people, these 

are their biggest purchases. So, it is important to 

choose wisely. 

A whole new re-use industry has developed around 

re-fashioned and secondhand clothes and other 

previously owned products, clearly extending the 

life of these products. These obviously extend the 

life of the garment, but only if they are alternatives 

to buying new clothes. 

The choice of fabrics have their pros and cons. 

Clothes made from natural fibres such as cotton 

and wool can have a carbon footprint more 

than 20 times their weight. Their cultivation, 

processing and transport may involve heavy use 

of fossil fuels. Synthetic fibres, such as nylon 

and pvc, are used for waterproof, stretchy and 

light clothing. Although they are made from fossil 

fuels they may not need so much washing and 

drying which can use loads of energy. In many 

cases the washing and drying of clothes produces 

more carbon emissions than the production and 

processing of the clothes. 

Packaging 

Packaging from plastic is made from carbon-rich 

petroleum oil – one of the fossil fuels. So when 

it is burnt or dumped, it releases greenhouse gas 

emissions into the atmosphere. Packaging from 

paper and cardboard uses vast amounts of water, 

chemicals and electricity, even if it is recycled 

paper and cardboard. Sustainable packaging, 

is most climate-friendly when it is made with 

minimal, recyclable or renewable materials, has 

most potential to be reused or recycled and has 

least effect on the environment. 

Flickr: fmg 2001 

Flickr: Adam Foster 

44 

Labels 

Labels are important in helping us to easily spot 

the truly climate-friendly products and services. 

While green shopping guides can help, choosing 

between different brands can be complex and 


time-consuming. Reading the package and label, 

and asking the shopkeeper can be done in the 

shop but further research about greener choices 

can also be done online. 


îCase study 

There are now carbon emission labels on 

products in a few countries such as Canada, 

Switzerland and Japan. The Carbon Reduction 

Label in the United Kingdom shows how more 

and more brands are making a commitment to 

reducing their carbon footprint. 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Many people say that they buy things 

which they later feel they do not need or which 

do not bring them much satisfaction. So why do 

we do it? Which reasons apply to you, or to your 

friends or family? Which are good and which are 

questionable reasons? 

Basic – Need, safety, family 

Society – Belonging, approval, status 

Personal – Curiosity, enrichment 

Marketing – bargains, illusions 


✓ Tips 

Cutting out the new 

• Refraining from buying the newest version of 

a product if the current version is still working 

well. 

• Buying used or vintage clothing and furniture, 

but only if they are alternatives to buying new. 

Choosing the ethical 

• Learning more about the products one buys, 

including their carbon footprint. 

• Choosing eco-labeled goods and services. 

• Purchasing environmentally friendly products, 

including recycled goods and items that are 

easily recyclable and biodegradable. 

• Choosing goods from manufacturers and 

dealers with clear environmental and ethical 

policies. 

Cutting down on shopping trips 

• Buying in bulk can save on shopping trips. 

• Buying dried and concentrated products saves 

transporting water. 

• When possible, shopping online can be one of 

the simplest ways of greening shopping, with 

fewer trips to shopping centres. 

Buying nothing 

• Trying some ideas like Buy Nothing Christmas 

which questions how the rampant consumerism 

of Christmas is damaging the planet or Buy 

Nothing Day – an international day of protest 

against consumerism. 

Flickr: Freecycle Graphics 


12. Money and jobs 

Choices about the way we spend or invest our money and the jobs we want 

or do can have a big impact on climate change. So, how can our choices help 

to build low-carbon economies? 

Money and banks 

There are now many low carbon choices for how 

to spend, bank or invest our money. As bank 

customers, we have huge collective power which 

can influence where and how banks invest our 

money in large shareholding companies. Some 

banks, such as the Cooperative Bank have an 

ethical policy, which states that they will not finance 

any business whose core activity contributes to 

global climate change. The worldview of many 

traditional, or indigenous, communities is that 

all things are related and that ethics should be 

included in all investment decisions. 

Cost of climate change 

It is now widely accepted that acting on emissions 

now is cheaper than dealing with the impacts of 

climate change in the future. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Act now! 

To stop carbon dioxide (CO 2 

) levels rising above 

500 ppm (or 2 °C rise) by 2050, it is cheaper to 

spend money to address this now rather than 

later. It would be better to use 2 per cent of 

our gross domestic product (GDP), which is the 

total value of all goods and services produced in 

one country during a year, now to stop carbon 

dioxide levels from rising, rather than spending 

20 per cent of GDP later. 

(Stern Review on the Economics of climate change) 


Banking alternatives 

Some people are now using local currency or 

local credit unions and banks that only invest 

in the local community. This encourages local 

trading, markets and travel – all reducing carbon 

emissions, and exposing any potential local causes 

of climate change. 

îCase study 

Some young people in Ecuador are using 

Ecosimia as a form of trading and exchanging 

without money. This developed from similar 

schemes like Timebanking, which is growing in 

popularity in a range of developed countries. 

These schemes create their own local currency 

without the need for money and enable people 

to swop their skills. This encourages local, and 

hence low carbon, trade and exchange, as well 

as a range of social benefits. 

Governments and people are currently arguing 

about how money can be used globally to reduce 

the causes and effects of climate change with 

things like carbon taxes (taxing carbon emissions), 

cap and trade (limiting carbon emissions through a 

mandatory cap with mechanisms for compliance) 

and carbon offsetting (reducing carbon emissions 

to offset, or compensate, for emissions elsewhere 

on Earth). 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Organize a debate and tackle the following 

question: How do you think money could be used 

most effectively to tackle global climate change? 

Indicate the role of government, civil society, 

corporations and individuals. 

Buy now- pay later culture 

In 2008, when the financial crisis hit economies 

around the world, it was clear that our financial, 

banking, consumption and production systems are 

unstable. It also reminded us that our systems are 

all interconnected and what happens in one part 

46 


of the world affects other parts. Many around the 

world have been consuming their financial capital 

on credit. This culture of buy-now-pay later has 

followed the same pattern as our burning of fossil 

fuels now only to pay with climate change in later 

generations. 

Green jobs 

On the bright side, the carbon challenge is already 

developing many new career opportunities 

and green skills. Growing concerns over the 

environment have paved the way for an increasing 

demand for green jobs across a multitude of 

sectors such as energy, recycling, agriculture, 

food and transportation. 

Money and jobs 

members for the promotion of green jobs and the 

greening of the economy. 

îCase study 

In Bangladesh, the company Grameen 

Shakti has installed 2 million solar panels. This 

has provided green energy, promoted a green 

economy and developed green jobs giving a 

decent living to local women. 

The renewable energy sector is by far leading 

the way in developing green jobs with increasing 

investments in wind, solar and biomass 

production. There are already 2.3 million global 

jobs in renewable energy. The United Nations 

Environment Programme (UNEP) predicts that 

the number of jobs in this sector could exceed 20 

million by 2030. In some countries like the United 

States, there have been huge investments in clean 

energy of US$ 60 billion, some of which is being 

used for the creation of green jobs. This sector 

provides young people with endless opportunities, 

representing a new way for them to contribute 

towards the fight against climate change. 

îCase study 

In the United States, Green for All trains low 

income young people in renewable technologies, 

green construction and organic food industries. 

America’s Green Jobs Act is set to create millions 

of new green collar jobs. 

The explosive growth in jobs in newer, greener 

industries is likely to be matched by new green 

courses in colleges and universities. But in a way 

all jobs can be green. Some of the most influential 

jobs addressing climate change could be in sectors 

such as insurance, finance, government, transport 

and tourism. Decent green jobs, as promoted by 

UNEP, need to both protect the environment and 

reduce poverty. UNEP has shown that trade unions 

are influential in campaigning on behalf of their 

✓ Tips 

Your green lifestyle can influence the work 

style of your future employment for whatever 

job is chosen. 

Choosing a bank, insurance policy or investment 

where there is a clear ethical policy means more 

support for sustainable lifestyles. 

Working from home, communicating 

electronically and working part-time reduces 

our carbon footprint but can also increase 

our wellbeing. Some people would argue that 

with less working hours, more people could be 

employed and we could have more time for local 

community projects. 

Banking online is climate-friendly, saving the fuel 

to reach your bank, not to mention the paper 

saved to keep records. 



13. Connecting with others 

What is the impact of connecting with others by text, email or social 

networking? How can we use these connections as a force for change? How 

can we communicate with others about the value of a low carbon lifestyle? 

Communicating climate change 

Climate change and sustainable living are often 

in the news and in general conversation. This can 

make young people anxious and often confused. 

So, it helps to communicate well with others about 

the causes, effects and ways of reducing climate 

change. Research on the psychology of climate 

change communication shows what can work well 

when communicating with other young people. 

• Be positive – Taking a positive approach 

that change can happen and can lead to a 

better life. 

• Work together – Working with others 

can inspire them and set an example to 

politicians. 

• Connect with people - Starting from the 

concerns or issues of other people gets them 

interested. 

• Take small steps – Making even the smallest 

changes of lifestyle can be a good start. 

• Connect with nature – Experiencing nature 

motivates people to protect it, and can 

improve health. 

• Celebrate success – Demonstrating that 

positive change can motivate, inspire and be 

fun. 

Digital communication 

Computers are not always the best tools for 

connecting with others. But growing numbers 

of young people can instantly communicate 

around the world by text, email or social network. 

However, as with every other aspect of lifestyle, 

the opportunities for this vary greatly around the 

world. 

îCase study 

Young people in Brazil, India and Nigeria 

are using the low-energy XO laptop. It can be 

recharged with solar panels, hand-crank, footpedal 

and pull-string, as well as a regular plugin 

adaptor. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Internet access 

One estimate shows that over a quarter of the 

world’s population has internet access. But 

this ranges from nearly 80 per cent in North 

America to 10 per cent in Africa. 

(Internet World Stats) 

Adam Cade 


48 

The generation that has grown up with digital 

technology is well suited to developing and 

promoting this technology as a force for change 

and part of the solution to climate change. They 

can also help make the use of energy more 

efficient, quickly communicating advice of best 

local designs, farming practices and travel routes. 


îCase study 

Home personal computer users are helping 

to pioneer climate prediction research by 

tracking the links between global warming and 

extreme weather. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Mobile phone use 

Just two per cent of Africans had a mobile 

phone in 2000, but nearly 30 per cent had one 

in 2009. Developing countries have 66 per cent 

of the world’s mobile phones. 

Connecting with others 

the food chain. This can create health problems, 

such as respiratory, reproductive and development 

problems. 

Current global e-waste generation is growing 

by about 40 million tons a year, especially as 

there are new product models increasingly being 

developed and coming onto the market. Unless 

adequate steps are taken to properly collect and 

recycle materials, many developing countries 

will face the challenge of dealing with mountains 

of hazardous e-waste. So replacing electronic 

products just because new ones are available will 

build this mountain even higher. 

(Measuring the Information Society) 

Climate change communication needs young 

people both locally and globally, with their 

electronic networking, open mindedness and 

innovation. Young people have often led changes 

of lifestyle. They have been key catalysts of 

not just social and cultural change, but also 

technological innovation. 

îCase study 

Cranked, but not cranky, the multi-tasking 

Eco media player plays movies, FM radio, MP3s, 

stores photos and files, recharges mobile phones 

and records sound. One minute of winding gives 

40 minutes of audio play. 

✓ Tips 

Sharing, reusing and recycling electronic 

products helps to reduce e-waste entering the 

environment. 

ÀIn Numbers 

Electronic sales 

Sales of electronic products around the world, 

particularly in Africa and Latin America are set 

to rise sharply in the next 10 years. In South 

Africa and China by 2020, e-waste from old 

computers will have jumped by 200 to 400 per 

cent from 2007 levels and by 500 per cent in 

India. 

(Solving the e-waste problem, UNEP) 

Electronic waste 

Electronic products such as computers, televisions, 

telephones, mobile phones, air conditioners, 

electronic toys, generate harmful waste when they 

are discarded improperly, and this has serious 

impacts on the environment and health. These 

products use a wide range of metals, plastics 

and other harmful substances, such as lead and 

mercury. When they end up in landfills, harmful 

substances leak from the decomposing waste into 

the environment by seeping into groundwater, 

contaminating the soil, and eventually entering 

Flickr: Manuel Flores 



Electronic emissions 

Of course, the global digital boom has a global 

carbon cost. All our electronic communication 

has an environmental impact. Viewing web pages 

for an hour a day could emit up to 0.25 tons of 

greenhouse gases (GHGs) per year. The more 

complex and animated the webpage, the more 

the emissions. 

Search engines operate huge data centres around 

the world that consume a great deal of electricity, 

mainly to stop them from over-heating. The total 

power required to run and cool these data centres 

is about 30 per cent of the business costs. Doing 

two online searches from a desktop computer can 

emit as much greenhouse gas as boiling water in 

a kettle. 

campaigners. Many organizations are using the 

power of social networks to mobilize youth around 

the world for a common cause. 

îCase study 

Since 2008, the environmental organization 

350.org has led a campaign to build a global 

grassroots movement to raise awareness of 

man-made climate change. It has mobilized 

more than 5200 actions in 181 countries 

and has taken its message to UN climate 

conferences. It is named 350 because 350 parts 

per million (ppm) is what many scientists say is 

the safe limit for CO 2 

emissions. It is predicted 

that we are above the safe zone at our current 

388ppm. 

Mobile phones cause a fairly tiny slice of global 

emissions, but if you are a chatterbox using your 

mobile for an hour each day, the total adds up 

to more than 1 ton of carbon dioxide equivalent 

(CO 2 

e) emissions per year. 

ÀIn Numbers 

ICT emissions 

Information communication technologies (ICT) 

account for 2 per cent of global CO 2 

e emissions 

- 40 per cent of which is due to PC’s and 

monitors. 

(Climate Neutral Network. UNEP) 

✓ Tips 

By switching off a computer when not 

required, carbon dioxide (CO 2 

) emissions can be 

reduced significantly, typically by over half a ton 

per year. 

Social networks 

The new age of global networking allows us to 

connect instantly with thousands of other young 

people as a force for change. Social media, like 

Facebook and Twitter, has given young people the 

potential to be global journalists, film-makers and 

“Facebook has oiled the wheels of activism, and has 

been a boon for young environmentalists. Before 

Facebook, it was difficult to stay in contact after 

international youth conferences or events. Now 

sharing helps us all maintain our enthusiasm.” 

HyunJin Jeon, North East Asia Youth Environment Network 

îCase study 

The Denmark-based ido30 campaign for 

washing clothes at a lower temperature used 

social media to influence people with more than 

12,495 fans on Facebook in 25 countries, and a 

popular feed on Twitter. At the United Nations 

Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 

in 2009, people used social media sites to 

post their wishes for change and action. This 

successful campaign involved a partnership 

between a company that produced a climate 

friendly product and a creative agency that 

knew how to use the growing power of social 

media. 

Socialbrite’s social tools for social change 


50 


A global youth movement has grown around 

climate change issues, with hundreds of grassroots 

initiatives, campaigns and networks springing up 

in countries around the world. Section 15 – Online 

resources lists many examples. However, most 

of the existing youth-led networks that focus 

on climate change are mainly in the Englishspeaking, 

developed world. So, the networking 

challenge for the digital generation is to connect a 

wider range of young people from developed and 

developing countries. 


There are also many networks and websites 

targeted either at schools and colleges or at a 

general interested audience. 

“Students at my high school regularly convene with 

other schools to find solutions to problems. My 

committee focused on global warming. We raised 

funds from corporate sponsorship and at fairs. So far 

we’ve involved students in afforesting eight schools 

and explaining how it reduces global warming.” 

Dmitri Tasmali, Turkey, UNEP Magazine for youth: Tunza 

Communicating with decision-makers 

Young people have been present at climate 

negotiations since the Rio Earth Summit in 

1992, and at the series of annual United Nations 

conferences on climate change. Their actions 

have resulted in widespread media coverage 

and the mobilization of thousands of their peers, 

using blogs and online video. They have met 

with government representatives, participated in 

dramatic actions and creative demonstrations, and 

let the global public know what their governments 

were doing on their behalf. 

Collectively, their plans have included building 

the global youth movement by supporting smaller 

delegations, shaming negotiators who obstruct 

the policy process and demanding that a youth 

voice be heard in the official meetings of the 

conference. 

“Our future is at stake. History will judge whether 

you did enough to give us a planet worth living in. 

As you make these decisions, take a moment to 

reflect on why you are here. Are you here for us, 

your children? As emerging leaders, young people are 

mobilizing the public, building powerful movements, 

and forging international coalitions. We are already 

inheriting the consequences of your choices. The 

world is watching, The youth are rising.” 

So spoke four representatives of a group of 200 young 

people from 30 countries at the United Nations Framework 

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) in Bali, 2007. 

îCase study 

The Fossil of the Day awards are presented 

to countries which perform badly during climate 

change negotiations. These awards were first 

presented during climate talks in Bonn in 1999. 

See the scoreboard to see which countries got 

the awards. 

îCase study 

19-year-old Ravi Muthu attended his first 

Indian Youth Climate Network event as a climate 

sceptic. He was convinced that the planet was 

just going through a natural warming period. He 

asked questions, and kept getting reasonable 

answers, until he had no choice but to switch 

sides. He has run recruiting events for the 

Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) at over 

100 colleges, learning two languages along the 

way. 

Flickr: Oxfam International 


14. Taking action 

Young people are not powerless. Their generation is the first generation with the 

knowledge, skills and technology needed to prevent the catastrophic impacts of 

climate change – but perhaps the last that can actually do so. 

Climate change is happening and it needs to be 

dealt with now. We must be the agents of change 

in addressing this crisis we have created and 

everyone has a role to play. As a global community, 

the lifestyles we lead as individuals, the policies 

our governments implement, and the way our 

industries behave all have an impact on this one 

Earth that we all share. We can find solutions 

and change the way we are living. This can be 

done collectively, through the environmentally 

conscious and sustainable solutions we introduce 

in our homes, our workplaces, our communities, 

our cities and countries, but also, individually, by 

adopting more sustainable lifestyles. 

Choice of actions 

At the global level, there are five main types of 

action that could reduce global warming. All of 

these need government support and most need 

inter-governmental agreement: 

• Changing the behaviour of institutions, 

individuals and businesses; 

• Increasing energy efficiency; 

• Switching to low or zero carbon energy 

sources; 

• Speeding up the development of new 

technologies; 

• Using natural carbon sinks, especially 

forests; 

Changing individual behaviour is the trigger for 

many other actions because as consumers, voters 

and citizens, we can influence the decisions of 

others. The demand from our consumer choices 

can direct the supply of low carbon, energyefficient 

products and services. The bottom-up 

approach to change can work. 


Young people have shown concern about climate 

change through their engagement in various 

initiatives around the world. They have been 

active and vocal at international conferences on 

climate change, and have taken leadership roles in 

a wide range of adaptation and mitigation projects 

addressing climate change. These projects range 

from educating each other on climate change 

issues and youth entrepreneurship to finding 

ways of producing sustainable energy to help 

their communities. 


52 


‹ 

Get Active! 

Debate with others: Governments are 

more effective than local communities at meeting 

the challenge of climate change. 

This obviously depends on many factors, ranging 

from the type of government, the political and 

economical situation of the country and so forth. 

There is no right answer and working together is 

the most effective way forward. However, such a 

debate can raise a lot of issues about how young 

people can most effectively take action. 

Group action 

Taking action 

Taking action with other people, in the community, 

school, college or university, can be more 

motivating, easy and fun than personal action. 

But successful group action needs people with a 

wide range of skills. 

Different impacts 

It is important that we know the different impacts 

that our lifestyle choices have on greenhouse 

gas emissions. For example, some common and 

popular green behaviour has relatively little impact 

on emissions, such as buying energy efficient 

products or recycling. Others such as avoiding 

unnecessary short-haul flights are less common 

and popular but have a big impact. These impacts 

also vary in different countries. 

In industrialised countries, the biggest elements 

of personal carbon footprints are usually housing, 

transport, food and electrical appliances, in 

that order. In those countries, people typically 

consume 40 per cent fuel/electricity, 40 per cent 

food and 20 per cent for everything else by mass. 

However, the big elements of personal carbon 

footprints in developing and emerging countries 

are usually food followed by housing. However, 

richer populations in developing countries often 

have similar personal carbon footprints to those 

in developed countries. 

Flickr: Net_efekt 

✓ Tips 

Skills for group action 

Practical skills - Plant lots of trees as carbon 

sinks, preferably species that add shade, 

beauty, fruit and nuts. (See the Billion Tree 

Campaign) 

Marketing skills - Ask shopkeepers to 

sell recycled products if they don’t already. 

Recycling paper saves trees. Recycling most 

materials saves energy. 

Writing and design skills - Show your local or 

national politicians that you are serious about 

climate change. Write to them. Visit them. 

Speak out at public meetings - Many policy 

makers love to hear from young people. Write 

blogs, letters for websites and local newspapers. 

Produce posters, leaflets or videos. 

Facilitation skills - Run a workshop for other 

youth groups. 

Leadership skills - Set up a group and link to 

sites like TakingITglobal. Run a local campaign. 

Join a national or international campaign. 

Organize a special event, fair or festival. 

Link a campaign to a special day like World 

Environment Day June 5. 


Adam Cade

Taking action 

Campaigning 

All great campaigns in social improvement, like 

the end of slavery or universal primary education, 

were started by groups of creative, determined 

and open-minded people who saw the need for 

change. So, there are reasons for optimism. 

The Climate Change Youth Guide to Action on the 

TakingITGlobal website gives advice on planning 

and reviewing a campaign. 

“The first step is to make sure that everyone 

understands exactly what the challenge is, then 

convince individuals that their actions count, even 

though the challenge is so big. Our campaign will 

try to demonstrate that everyone can contribute 

something – that it’s possible to achieve real change 

when all sectors of society act together. And we’ll try 

to get this across in an interesting and entertaining 

way, showing people that helping the planet can be 

positive, fun and desirable.” 

Sara Svensson, UNEP Tunza Youth Advisory Council, 

Sweden 

‹ 

Get Active! 

Look at some climate change and lifestyle 

campaign websites (Buy Nothing Christmas, 350. 

org, African Youth Initiative on Climate Change). 

• Would you support any of these campaigns? 

Why or why not? 

• Are they aimed at raising awareness, changing 

behaviour or influencing decision-makers? 

• How do they focus on hopes and fears, the 

causes and effects, the problems and solutions? 

• What would make them a better campaign, if 

anything? 

• What makes a good campaign? 

Of course, the actions of concerned young people, 

even multiplied a million times, may seem 

insignificant. However, actions are powerful. They 

act as examples to others. They send messages 

to businesses and governments. Most importantly, 

they pave the way to adopting a healthier, happier 

and less consumer-based lifestyle! 


54 


Taking action 

Flickr: AYCC 

We must act now and we must act fast by 

adopting low carbon lifestyles and transforming 

our societies into low carbon societies, both of 

which are geared towards reducing greenhouse 

gas emissions. The longer we wait to do this, 

the more we damage our environment and 

ecosystems and eventually our daily lives. 

“The number of indigenous peoples’ movements 

across the globe is growing. Global leadership has to 

take this into account. It must be participatory. And 

it must involve the new generation. A leader should 

be a dreamer. Leadership is about being part of a 

movement and a struggle. Leaders can be individuals 

or whole groups.” 

Jennifer Awingan, organizer of the Asia Pacific Climate 

Youth Camp 2010, Philippines. 

“Often branded the leaders of tomorrow, young 

people around the globe are already leading, 

inspiring, and walking the talk. Undeterred by the 

barrage of stories of doom and gloom, these young 

people are already turning ideas into action and, 

through this passion and commitment, inspiring 

leadership, belief and enthusiasm in others.” 

Flickr: India Youth Climate Network 

Elizabeth Wainwright, author, Resurgence magazine 


15. Online resources 

All these resources are free and online. 

Section 1 – YXC Guidebook Series 

UN World Youth Report 2010 – Climate change - 

http://social.un.org/index 

Climate Challenge - BBC online interactive game - 

www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange 

Videos 

Home: A film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand - 

www.homethemovie.org 

Section 2 - Learning for change 

The UNESCO climate change initiative - Climate change 

education for sustainable development - www.unesco.org 

Here and now – Education for sustainable consumption - 

http://unep.org/pdf/Here_and_Now_English.pdf 

Sandwatch Manual - Adapting to climate change and educating 

for sustainable development - www.sandwatch.ca/ 

Climate change - Educator resource collections - 

http://climate.nasa.gov/education/ 

Climate kids - http://climate.nasa.gov/kids/ 

Job Corps - Sustainable living - Curriculum & Activity Guide 

http://fs.usda.gov/conservationeducation 

Global change: from research to the classroom - 

www.carboeurope.org/education 

Treading lightly on the Earth - 

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/ 

The Shared energy toolkit & Democs for schools - Climate 

change - www.neweconomics.org/ 

Climate talk - 

www.neweconomics.org/publications/climate-talk 

Facing the Future-Sustainability & Global Issues Curriculum - 

www.facingthefuture.org 

UPD8 Climate Futures Introductory Task - www.upd8.org.uk/ 

C4C Climate 4 classrooms - www.uk.climate4classrooms.org 

Practical Action climate change resources - 

http://practicalaction.org/schools 

Oxfam climate change resources - 

www.oxfam.org.uk/education/ 

ActionAid - Get global toolkit - www.actionaid.org.uk/ 

The corporation teachers resource - 

www.tvo.org/thecorporation/teachers.html 

The big climate change debate - how to play your part 

www.walescarbonfootprint.gov.uk 

Climate change: Post Copenhagen - 

www.oxfam.org.uk/education/ 

Happy planet sustainable development and citizenship - 

www.eauc.org.uk/sorted/files/happy_planet.pdf 

Awakening the dreamer, Changing the dream Symposium - 

http://awakeningthedreamer.org/get-involved/thesymposium/ 

The Global climate change game - 

www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/ 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “Young ESD voices from around the world,” 

“Youth conference on education for sustainable development & 

Vision Values Action,” “Power Down TV Show - World Cafe - 

Episode 10” 

Awakening the dreamer, Essential materials - 

http://awakeningthedreamer.org/get-involved/ 

Section 3 - Changing climates 

International Panel on Climate Change - www.ipcc.ch 

Gateway to the UN system’s work on climate change - 

www.un.org/climatechange/ 

Global climate change - Vital signs of the planet - 

http://climate.nasa.gov 

Kick the habit: A UN guide to carbon neutrality - 

www.unep.org/publications/ 

Climate in Peril: A popular guide to the latest IPCC reports - 

www.grida.no/publications/ 

UNEP Grid Arendal Vital Graphics series - 

www.grida.no/publications/vg 

Understanding Climate Change: UNEP’s Beginner’s Guide to 

the UN Framework Convention and its Kyoto Protocol - 

www.unep.org/dec/docs/info/ccguide/beginner-99.htm 

World Development Report 2010 - Science of climate change 

- www.worldbank.org 

US Environment Protection Agency - Climate Change - 

www.epa.gov/climatechange/ 

Real Climate - www.realclimate.org 

Trendalyzer - Gapminder World - world’s most important trends 

- www.footprintnetwork.org/ 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “How It All Ends” 

UNEP Science and scientific evidence on climate change - 

www.podcampus.de/channels/21/nodes/3366 

Section 4 – Changing effects and impacts 

Climate Frontlines brochure - www.climatefrontlines.org 

UNEP Tunza Magazine - No. 6.1 Kick the habit - 

www.ourplanet.com/tunza 

Stop disasters! A disaster simulation game - 

www.stopdisastersgame.org 

Human Impact Report: The anatomy of a silent crisis - 

www.eird.org/publicaciones/humanimpactreport.pdf 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “Earth Focus: Climate change special,” 

“Poor countries can’t afford our lifestyle,” “Fighting for survival 

- Indigenous peoples and climate change in Kenya,” “War for 

resources - Age of stupid animation,” “Facing up to droughts 

& floods” 

56 


Online resources 

“United Nations - 90 climate change videos - 

www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4BF02A105C347439 

Human Development Report 2007/2008: Climate change and 

human development - 

http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-8/videos 

Local solutions on a sinking paradise, Carteret Islands - 

www.vimeo.com/4177527 

Wake up, freak out - then get a grip - 


Climate change - One planet, one chance. Photo essay - 

www.inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/one-planet-onechance 

Section 5 - Lifestyle choices 

Tracking climate change - Comparing total and per capita CO 2 

emissions - www.miller-mccune.com/ 

Visions for change: Recommendations for effective policies on 

sustainable lifestyles - www.unep.org/publications 

Future news - www.neweconomics.org/ 

A Big Foot on a Small Planet? Accounting with the Ecological 

Footprint - www.conservation-development.net/?L=2&ds=5 

Global footprint network - www.footprintnetwork.org/en 

WWF footprint calculator - www.footprint.wwf.org.uk 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “Mathis Wackernagel: The Ecological 

Footprint,” “Age of Stupid: Clips: Bad Futures (Early Version)” 

Possible Futures film contest - 

www.possiblefuturesfilmcontest.org 

Section 6 - Good life 

DEFRA Wellbeing research: Synthesis report - 

www.defra.gov.uk 

Happy Planet Index - www.happyplanetindex.org 

Education for sustainable development linking learning and 

happiness - www.unesco.org 

The Alphabet of the Human Heart: The A to Zen of Life - 

www.alphaheart.com/outtakes-upside 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “The miniature Earth,” “THE SPIRIT LEVEL 

(short film),” “Affluenza (two2toomuch)” 

Economics of Happiness - www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org 

Section 7 – Food 

UNEP Tunza Magazine - No. 6.2 Food and the Environment, 

No. 6.3 Water - www.ourplanet.com/tunza 

UNEP Climate Neutral Network (Agri-Food) - 

www.unep.org/climateneutral/ 

What I eat - Around the world in 80 diets - 

www.whatieat.org/ 

Hungry planet: What the world eats - Educational guide - 

www.eusa.org/siteresources/data/files/pg_hungryplanet.pdf 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “Hungry planet,” “Think Global: Eat Local 

Pt 1 of 2,” “Think Global - Eat Local Pt 2 of 2,” “Climate Dish 

- Germanwatch and Bread for the World” 

The food and climate connection - 


Section 8 - Energy control 

Sustainable energy - without the hot air - 

www.withouthotair.com 

Estimated world statistics, including energy - 

www.worldometers.info 

Non-renewable energy poster - 

www.berr.gov.uk/files/file23275.pdf 

Renewable energy poster - 

www.berr.gov.uk/files/file23272.pdf 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “Biogas as a Health, Empowerment, and 

Climate Solution,” “Energy-Saving Tips Inside Your Home (1 of 

2),” “Energy, let’s save it!” “20% renewable energy by 2020” 

Section 9 - Travel and transport 

Our Planet - Sustainable transport - 

www.unep.org/ourplanet/2009/sept/en 

UNEP Climate Neutral Network (Transport) - 

www.unep.org/climateneutral/ 

Shell - Alternative energies for transport - 

www.shell.com/home/content/environment_society/ 

Flights and carbon calculator - www.chooseclimate.org/flying 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “Brazil- Curitiba, a sustainable city,” 

“Philippines moves to green transportation,” “Future360 Ep 3: 

Green Transportation,” “Amsterdam: The Bicycling Capitol of 

Europe” 

Innovation - Producing energy by walking - 


Section 10 - Leisure and entertainment 

Climate change and youth travel: A Youth Travel Industry 

Guide - www.wysetc.org/resource/resmgr/research_reports/ 

climate_change_industry_guid.pdf 

UNEP Green passport - www.unep.fr/greenpassport/ 

UNEP Green Meeting Guide - 

www.unep.org/pdf/GreenMeetingGuide.pdf 

Artists Project Earth - www.apeuk.org/ 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “Age of Stupid: Trailers: February 2009,” 

“climate change global warming cartoon part 2,” “Climate 

Change: The Musical,” “HOME of Climate Rap Winner: New!” 

“350 eARTh: Climate Change Art Visible From Space” 

Sustainable skateboards - http://planetgreen.discovery.com/ 

videos/treehugger-tv-sustainable-skateboards.html 

Take aim at climate change - www.passporttoknowledge.com/ 

polar-palooza/whatyoucando/taacc/ 


Online resources 

Hard rain film - www.unep.org/NewsCentre/videos/player_new. 

asp?w=480&h=272&f=/newscentre/videos/shortfilms/2009- 

12-1_Hard_rain 

Section 11 - Shopping for stuff 

Ethical consumer - www.ethicalconsumer.org 

A Closer Look at the Things We Buy - 

www.facingthefuture.org 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “Mike Berners Lee - The Carbon Footprint 

of Everything,” “Consumerism (AudioKingd0m)”, “Buy it, Use 

it, Break it, Junk it, it’s Toxic,” “Where does e-waste end up?” 

“Forests and climate change: A convenient truth pt 1/2 and 

pt 2/2” 

The Story of stuff - www.storyofstuff.com 

Green expo in Japan - www.vimeo.com/6241312 

De-ownership – Ecomodo - 

http://ecomodo.com/pages/index.aspx 

Collaborative consumption groundswell – What’s mine is yours 

- www.collaborativeconsumption.com/spreadables 

Section 12 - Money and Jobs 

Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon 

world - www.unep.org/ 

UN Climate Change Learn - www.uncclearn.org/ 

Tim Jackson’s economic reality check - www.ted.com/talks/ 

tim_jackson_s_economic_reality_check.html 

Growth isn’t working - The unbalanced distribution of benefits 

and costs from economic growth - www.neweconomics.org 

Ethical Consumerism Report 2009 (Co-op Bank) - 

www.co-operativebankinggroup.co.uk/ 

Green careers - http://climate.nasa.gov/kids/greenCareers/ 

index.cfm 

Job Corps - Green jobs - www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_ 

DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5212120.pdf 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “The Bill - short film - Germanwatch,” “Age 

of Stupid: Clips: Contract and Converge Animation” 

TakingITGlobal - www.tigweb.org/ 

Snapshot of the global youth movements - 

http://youthmovement.org/guide/globalguide.htm 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “UNICEF Pacific - Kiribati and Climate 

Change,” “The Alliance for Climate Education: Climate change 

for teenagers,” “Eddsworld - climate change animation” 

Young voices on climate change-series of short films - 

www.youngvoicesonclimatechange.com/ 

1 minute to save the world - 

www.1minutetosavetheworld.com 

Section 14 – Taking action 

TakingItGlobal - Climate change: youth guide to action - 

www.tigweb.org/action-tools/guide 

Twelve steps to help you kick the CO 2 

habit - 

www.unep.org/ 

Our Future Planet - Share today’s knowledge, Take action, 

Create our future planet - www.ourfutureplanet.org 

Videos 

www.youtube.com: “The Global Climate Wake-Up Call,” “Happy 

Birthday Transition Heathrow,” “UNICEF: Zambian youth 

delegates confront climate crisis” 

Resilient Bangladesh: Mapping local solutions - 


Young leaders from the global south - 


Youth grabbing the wheel - www.fora.tv/topic/environment 

Section 13 - Connecting with others 

The psychology of climate change communication - 

www.cred.columbia.edu/guide/ 

Communicating sustainability - www.unep.org/publications 

Sell the sizzle: the new climate message - www.futerra.co.uk 

“UNFCCC Growing together in a changing climate - The 

United Nations, young people and climate change” and “Youth 

participation in the UNFCCC negotiation process - The United 

Nations, young people and climate change” - www.unfccc.int 

Youth united for climate progress - www.youthclimate.org 

The Youth climate movement - 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_Climate_Movement 

Youth@COP15 - The youth climate movement’s coming of age 

- www.sustainus.org 

58 


Adaptation 

The adoption of policies and practices aimed at preparing for the 

effects of climate change, accepting that complete avoidance is 

now impossible because of the inertia of the atmospheric and 

oceanic systems. 

Anthropogenic emissions 

It refers to emissions of greenhouse gases, greenhouse gas 

originators and aerosols associated with human activities, 

including burning of fossil fuels for energy, deforestation, and 

land-use changes that result in net increase in emissions. 

Carbon dioxide (CO 2 

) 

The main greenhouse gas caused by human activities. It also 

originates from natural sources, like volcanic activity. 

Carbon footprint 

Amount of greenhouse gases (usually measured in tons of 

carbon dioxide equivalent) being emitted by a person, an 

organization, a product or an activity. 

Carbon sink 

A natural feature – a forest, for example, or a peat bog – which 

absorbs CO 2 

. 

Circular economy 

A circular economy is an economy that balances economic 

development with environmental and resource conservation. 

It puts emphasis on environmental protection and the most 

efficient use of and recycling of resources. A circular economy 

features low consumption of energy, low emission of pollutants 

and high efficiency. 

Climate change 

It refers to a statistically significant variation of either the 

average state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for 

an extended period (typically decades or longer). This change 

may be due to natural internal processes or external forcing, 

or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of 

the atmosphere or in land use. The United Nations Framework 

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines climate 

change as a change that is attributed directly or indirectly 

to human activity that alters the composition of the global 

atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate 

variability observed over comparable time periods. The UNFCCC 

makes a distinction between climate change attributable to 

human activities and climate variability attributable to natural 

causes. 

CO 2 

Equivalent 

This is the concentration of CO 2 

that would cause the same 

amount of radiative forcing as the given mixture of CO 2 

and 

other greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide equivalents (CO 2 

e) 

provide a universal standard of measurement against which 

the impacts of releasing (or avoiding the release of) different 

greenhouse gases can be evaluated. 

Consumers 

Everyday purchaser of a good or service in retail or end user in 

the distribution chain of a good or service. 

Consumption 

Expenditure during a particular period on goods and services 

used in the satisfaction of needs and wants, or process in 

which the substance of a thing is completely destroyed, and/or 

incorporated or transformed into something else. 

16. Useful terms 

Conspicuous consumption 

Lavish spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the 

purpose of displaying income or wealth and maintaining social 

status. 

Ecological footprint 

A measure of how much biologically productive land and water 

an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the 

resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates 

using prevailing technology and resource management 

practices. The ecological footprint is usually measured in 

global hectares (a common unit that encompasses the average 

productivity of all the biologically productive land and sea 

area in the world in a given year). Because trade is global, an 

individual or country’s footprint includes land or sea from all 

over the world. 

Education for sustainable development 

Education for sustainable development (ESD) aims to help 

people to develop the attitudes, skills and knowledge to make 

informed decisions for the benefit of themselves and others, 

now and in the future, and to act upon these decisions. ESD 

supports five fundamental types of learning to provide quality 

education and foster sustainable human development: learning 

to know, learning to be, learning to live together, learning to 

do and learning to transform oneself and society. ESD concerns 

all levels of education and all social contexts (family, school, 

workplace, community). It allows learners to acquire the 

skills, capacities, values and knowledge required to ensure 

sustainable development, and fosters responsible citizens. 

Fossil fuels 

Carbon-based fuels from fossil carbon deposits, including coal, 

oil, and natural gas. 

Global warming 

The increase in the average measured temperature of the 

Earth’s near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century, 

and its projected continuation. 

Green building 

A green building focuses on ecological aspects. It is designed, 

specified and constructed with energy and water efficiency in 

mind, and minimising any adverse impact of the building on its 

inhabitants as well as the environment. 

Greenhouse effect 

The reason the Earth’s surface is this warm is the presence 

of greenhouse gases, which act as a partial blanket for the 

longwave radiation coming from the surface. This blanketing 

is known as the natural greenhouse effect. Without a natural 

greenhouse effect, the temperature of the Earth would be 

about -18°C instead of 14°C. 

Greenhouse gas (GHG) 

Atmospheric gases that trap the heat and are responsible for 

warming the earth and climate change. The major greenhouse 

gases are carbon dioxide (CO 2 

), methane (CH4) and nitrous 

oxide (N20). Less prevalent but very powerful greenhouse 

gases are hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) 

and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). 

Greenwashing 

Greenwashing is the act of misleading consumers about the 

environmental practices of a company or the environmental 

Y o u t h X c h a n g e - C l i m a t e c h a n g e a n d l i f e s t y l e s 

59

Useful terms 

benefits of a product or service. Companies are notably accused 

of greenwashing when they spend more time and money 

claiming to be green through advertising and marketing than 

actually implementing business practices that minimise their 

environmental impact. 

Green jobs 

Green jobs are work in agriculture, industry, services and 

administration that contributes to preserving or restoring the 

quality of the environment. They reduce the environmental 

impact of enterprises and economic sectors, ultimately to 

levels that are sustainable. Green jobs are found in many 

sectors of the economy, from energy supply to recycling, and 

from agriculture and construction to transportation. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 

(IPCC) 

Leading international body for the assessment of climate 

change. It was established by the United Nations Environment 

Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization 

(WMO) to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the 

current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential 

environmental and socio-economic impacts. 

Kyoto Protocol 

A protocol to the UN Framework Climate Change Convention. 

The Protocol requires developed countries to reduce their GHG 

emissions below levels specified for each of them in the Treaty. 

These targets must be met within a five-year time frame 

between 2008 and 2012, and add up to a total cut in GHG 

emissions of at least 5% against the baseline of 1990. 

Lifestyles 

In this publication, the word lifestyle refers more broadly and 

more simply to ways of life, encapsulating representations, 

values and beliefs, behaviors and habits, institutions, economic 

and social systems. 

Low carbon economy 

A low carbon economy is a new economic, technological and 

social system of production and consumption to conserve 

energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, compared with 

the traditional economic system, whilst maintaining momentum 

towards economic and social development. 

Mitigation 

A human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the 

sinks of greenhouse gases. 

Renewable energy 

Energy sources that are, within a short time frame relative to 

the Earth’s natural cycles, sustainable, and include non-carbon 

technologies such as solar energy, hydropower, and wind, as 

well as carbon-neutral technologies such as biomass. 

Resources 

Naturally occurring assets that provide benefits through 

the provision of raw materials and energy used in economic 

activity (or that may provide such benefits one day) and that 

are subject primarily to quantitative depletion through human 

use. They are subdivided into four resource categories: mineral 

and energy, soil, water and biological. 

Sufficiency 

The concept of sufficiency provides an alternative economic 

model to consumerism, and is a necessary component of 

sustainable lifestyles. It is a philosophical ideal that offers 

the possibility of a higher quality of life while simultaneously 

reducing the human impact on the natural world. Sufficiency 

challenges the notion that if some is good, then more must be 

better; instead, it emphasises enoughness. Sufficiency is not 

about sacrifice, denial, asceticism or doing without; it is about 

wellbeing and being well. 

Sustainable development 

Development that meets the needs of the present without 

compromising the ability of future generations to meet their 

own needs. Sustainable development includes economic, 

environmental and social sustainability, which are independent 

and mutually reinforcing pillars, and can be achieved by 

rationally managing physical, natural and human capital. 

Poverty eradication, changing unsustainable patterns of 

production and consumption and protecting and managing 

the natural resource base of economic and social development 

are overarching objectives of, and essential requirements for, 

sustainable development. 

Sustainable lifestyle 

A sustainable lifestyle is a way of living enabled both by efficient 

infrastructures, goods and services, and by individual choices 

and actions that minimize the use of natural resources, and 

generation of emissions, wastes and pollution, while supporting 

equitable socio-economic development and progress for all. 

Creating sustainable lifestyles means rethinking our ways of 

living, how we buy and how we organise our everyday life. It is 

also about altering how we socialise, exchange, share, educate 

and build identities. It is about transforming our societies and 

living in balance with our natural environment. 

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate 

Change (UNFCCC) 

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 

(UNFCCC) is the first international climate treaty. It came into 

force in 1994 and has since been ratified by 189 countries 

including the United States. More recently, a number of nations 

have approved an addition to the treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, 

which has more powerful (and legally binding) measures. 

Wellbeing 

Wellbeing refers to the state of being healthy and happy. It is 

correlated with many different factors, including the capacity 

to meet one’s needs. It is beyond financial wealth indicators 

such as GDP. However, research has shown that, beyond a 

point, increasing consumption and GDP does not make people 

happier and more satisfied. Wellbeing is also closely correlated 

to social capital, including the feeling of being part of and 

useful to a community. 

Virtual water 

Also referred to as embedded water. It is the water consumed in 

the production process of an agricultural or industrial product. 

Zero waste 

This involves rethinking and redesigning product lifecycles so 

that all products are reused, repaired or recycled back into 

nature or the market place, creating a complete circle. 

60 


The YouthXchange Initiative 

UNEP and UNESCO started the YouthXchange 

(YXC) Initiative in 2001 to promote sustainable 

lifestyles among young people (aged 15-24) 

through education, dialogue, awareness raising 

and capacity-building. At the national and local 

level, YXC training activities are secured through 

a diverse network of partners, with the support 

of a printed training kit and a website www. 

youthxchange.net. 

The YXC training kit on responsible 

consumption 

The YXC training kit provides information, 

ideas, tips and good practices on topics such as 

sustainable consumption, lifestyles, mobility, 

waste reduction, energy and resource efficiency, 

smart and responsible shopping and so forth. 

Since 2001, the YouthXchange guide has been 

translated into over 20 languages, including: 

Arabic, Azeri, Basque, Catalan, Chinese, Filipino, 

Flemish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, 

Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, 

Slovenian, Spanish, Turkish. From China to Italy 

and from Dubai to Mexico City, UNEP and UNESCO 

estimate that the guide has been distributed 

to more than 400,000 people world-wide. It is 

downloadable from www.unep.org and www. 

unesco.org. 

17. About YXC 

The YXC Network 

YXC works with young people aged 15-24 as well 

as educators, non-governmental organizations 

(NGOs), trainers and youth leaders around the 

world. YXC reaches young people through a 

network of national partners in 45 countries. 

YXC has become a network of organizations 

that actively pursue education for sustainable 

consumption and lifestyles and work at the 

local level with the same materials and similar 

pedagogical approaches. Some YXC partners also 

have local versions of the YXC website. 

The YXC partners 

The YouthXchange partners all over the world 

have made the project a reality and are living 

proof of how complex sustainable lifestyle values 

can be transmitted to young people, while having 

fun and exchanging ideas and active experiences. 


The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and 

Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and 

Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded on 

November 16, 1945. This specialized United Nations 

agency’s mission is to contribute to the building 

of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable 

development and intercultural dialogue through 

education, the sciences, culture, communication 

and information. 

For more information: 

UNESCO Division of Education for Peace and 

Sustainable Development 

7, place de Fontenoy 

75732 Paris Cedex 07 France 

Tel: (+33 1) 456 810 36 

Fax: (+33 1) 456 856 44 

Email: j.heiss@unesco.org 

www.unesco.org/education 

United Nations Decade of Education for 

Sustainable Development (DESD) 

In December 2002, the United Nations General 

Assembly (UNGA) adopted resolution 57/254 to put 

in place a United Nations Decade of Education for 

Sustainable Development (DESD), spanning from 

2005 to 2014, and designated UNESCO to lead the 

Decade. The United Nations Decade of Education 

for Sustainable Development seeks to integrate 

the principles, values, and practices of sustainable 

development into all aspects of education and 

learning, in order to address the social, economic, 

cultural and environmental problems we face in the 

21st century. 


http://www.unesco.org/education/desd 

www.unesco.org 

United Nations Educational, Scientific 

and Cultural Organization 

Tel: (33 1) 45 68 10 00 

Fax: (33 1) 45 67 16 90 

Authors 

Adam Cade is Director of Susted - 

Sustainability Education Consultancy, UK. He 

has designed and run many workshops and 

projects on lifestyle and climate change for 

teachers, community groups and students in 

both the UK, Asia and the Middle East. 


http://susted.grouply.com 

Email: adam@susted.org.uk 

Rob Bowden is Director of Lifeworlds 

Learning, UK. He has written and produced 

many educational books and websites, as well 

as developed courses and projects for teachers 

and young people that promote critical learning, 

global issues and sustainable development. 


www.lifeworldslearning.co.uk 

Email: rob.bowden@lifeworldslearning.co.uk 

United Nations Environment Programme 

(UNEP) 

The United Nations Environment Programme was 

created in 1972 as the voice for the environment 

within the UN system. Its mission is to provide 

leadership and encourage partnership in caring for 

the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling 

nations and peoples to improve their quality of life 

without compromising that of future generations. 


UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and 

Economics 

15 rue de Milan 

75441 Paris Cedex 09, France 

Tel: (+33 1) 443 714 50 

Fax: (+33 1) 443 714 74 

Email: sc@unep.fr 

www.unep.org 

United Nations Environment Programme 

P.O.Box 30552 Nairobi, Kenya 

Tel: +254 (0)20 762 1234 

Fax: +254 (0)20 762 3927 

uneppub@unep.org

Climate Change and Lifestyles Guidebook - UNEP

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